MARSHALL, Minn. -- The University of Sioux Falls Women's Basketball Team (5-0, 1-0 NSIC) picked up a fifth straight win to open the season with a 75-40 win over Southwest Minnesota State (0-5, 0-1 NSIC) on the road to open NSIC play on Saturday night.

The Cougars, the defending NSIC Tournament champions, opened the NSIC season with an impressive performance by rolling to a 24-14 first quarter lead and extending it to 39-19 by halftime. In the second half, USF again dominated with a 36-21 edge to pick up the 75-40 win.

With the win, USF has opened 5-0 for the fourth straight year with head coach Travis Traphagen, who picked up his 161st career win at USF, including his 48th in NSIC play.
For the fifth straight game, Knecht reached double figures with a solid overall performance. Knecht had 16 points, nine rebounds, five blocks and two steals in just 28 minutes of play. She hit 7-of-10 from the field, including her first three pointer of the season. To this point in the season, Knecht is averaging a double and has hit 35-of-64 shots from the field for 54.7 percent. She has also run her blocked shots total to 16 on the season with a second straight game of five. She has had 20 double digit scoring games in the past 38 games with six straight dating to a year ago.

Joining Knecht with a standout night was freshman Andi Mataloni, who had a career-best 16 points with two rebounds. Off the bench, Mataloni hit 5-of-6 shots from the field, including a career-best 5-of-6 from three point range in 13 minutes of work. For the season, she has hit 10-of-21 three pointers for 47.6 percent.

Senior guard Madi Robson continues to perform at a high level with six points, eight rebounds and eight assists. She has had at least six assists in every game this season and is averaging 7.8 per game.Also for USF, freshman Kaely Hummel provided nine points and two assists while freshman Mariah Szymanski provided eight points and knocked down 2-of-3 from three point range.

As a squad, USF hit 46.8 percent (29-of-62) from the floor, including 12-of-23 from three point range and 5-of-8 from the foul line. The Cougars also won the rebound battle with a 40-28 edge and shared the ball well with 22 assists.

The USF defense was also stellar by forcing SMSU into 20 turnovers, recording eight steals and seven blocked shots, which created an 18-10 advantage in points off turnovers. USF also held SMSU to 29.5 percent (13-of-44) shooting from the field, including only 2-of-9 from three-point range. USF controlled almost all of the stat categories with a 38-15 edge in points off the bench. They had a 30-22 edge in points in the paint and 13-4 margin in second chance points.

SMSU was led on offense by Sarah Buysse with 14 points while Carleigh Rodning had 12 points and Taylor Holicky grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds.

In the game, the Cougars opened quickly with a 7-2 run, keyed by Knecht's three-pointer with 7:43 to play in the first quarter. A lay-up by Brooke Smith was followed by Hummel's three-pointer as USF took a 16-6 lead at the 4:10 mark of the quarter. USF had a 24-11 lead after a Robson lay-up but SMSU received a three-point play from Abby Connell with seven seconds left in the quarter.  The Cougars hit 9-of-17 field goals in the first quarter for 52.9 percent while SMSU was just 5-of-14 for 35.7 percent.

The USF advantage grew in the second quarter, keyed by the defense. USF held SMSU to just 2-of-14 (14.3 percent) and a total of five points. Meanwhile, the Cougars hit 6-of-16 shots, including 2-of-5 from three point range to build the 39-19 lead at the break.

USF continued to press the advantage and pushed the lead to 47-21 with 8:10 left in the third quarter after Szymanski knocked down consecutive three-point shots. USF moved past 50 points in the game when Mataloni connected from distance for a 52-27 advantage at the 5:08 mark in the quarter. After another three from Mataloni, the Cougars build the lead to 58-27 at the 2:56 mark. A jumper by USF's Augusta Thamar (:56) allowed USF to take a 60-27 lead after three quarters of play.

In the fourth quarter, USF hit 6-of-13 shots to hold off any SMSU run. After neither team scored for two minutes, USF had a lay-up from Knecht (7:34) and a pair of three-pointer from Mataloni for a 68-31 lead with 5:20 left in the game.  

Next for USF will be a road trip to Winona State on Dec. 2 and Upper Iowa on Dec. 3.