SIOUX FALLS – Ending the first semester and a three-game home stand, University of Sioux Falls Women's Basketball hosts Southwest Minnesota State on Saturday, Dec. 17 at 4 p.m. The Cougars are riding a three-game win streak and have an 8-1 overall record with a 4-1 mark in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. SMSU brings in a 1-8 record, 1-4 in the NSIC.
 
How to watch/listen
All of USF's home games and NSIC contests will be streamed live via Stretch Internet and are available at USFCougars.com/watch. Veteran broadcaster Tom Frederick is on the call for tonight's game on KWSN AM 1230 or FM 98.1 with pregame starting 15 minutes prior to tip-off. Links for all USF home games are available at USFCougars.com/livestats and links to road contest live stats are available on the USF Women's Basketball schedule.
 
Knecht posts two more impressive double-doubles, eclipses 1,000 points, earns second player of the week honor
As if the start to her senior season wasn't eye-catching enough, center Sam Knecht recorded two more impressive double-doubles and became the 18th player in USF Women's Basketball history to score 1,000 career points. The 6-foot-2 Platte, S.D. native needed one point to reach 1,000 for her career and she hit her first free throw of the game against St. Cloud State, then went on to score 20 points and grab 12 rebounds. Already the owner of the most points scored in a game during USF Women's Basketball's D2 era with 31 last year against Minnesota State, Knecht grabbed 18 rebounds to go along with 18 points against Minnesota Duluth for her fifth double-double of the season and the record for most rebounds in a game since USF joined the NCAA Division II ranks in 2012-13. Her 18 point and 15 rebound per game average earned her the NSIC south division player of the week for the second time this season and in her career.
 
Series history – Southwest Minnesota State – USF leads 8-1
After splitting the first two games of the series when the Cougars joined the NSIC, Sioux Falls has won the next seven games against Southwest Minnesota State by at least 10 points. The Cougars won the first meeting, 77-66, then dropped a 66-52 decision at home later in the 2012-13 season. Since then, the Cougars have won the next seven games by an average of 25.5 points. USF's only loss came at home in 2013 and they have a 3-1 record against SMSU in games played in the Stewart Center. Earlier this season, USF toppled the Mustangs 75-40 behind Sam Knecht and Andi Mataloni, who each scored 16 points. The USF defense forced 20 SMSU turnovers and the Cougars turned those into 18 points.
 
Smith making her mark off the bench
Since joining the Cougars this season, Cleveland State transfer Brooke Smith has been a force off the bench for USF. She is averaging 10.7 points which ranks third on the team and has a team-high 23 steals. Over the last two weeks, she has scored 12 or more points three times and poured in a career-high 26 against Minnesota Duluth. Smith led USF's comeback with 16 second-half points against Winona State then she scored 12 the next Friday in a win over St. Cloud State. Against UMD, the Twinsburg, Ohio native connected on three of her four three-point attempts and was 5-for-7 at the free throw line on the way to her career-best 26 points. Smith has recorded multiple steals in five of USF's nine games and has scored in double figures five times as well.
 
Cougar defensive quick hits

• Sioux Falls has the third-best scoring margin in the NSIC, holding a plus-16.4 point per game average over their opponents.
• USF's opponent scoring average is 52.9 points per game, third-lowest in the league
• The Cougars are holding their opponents to a 34.1 field goal percentage, third in the NISC
• Sam Knecht has blocked 19 total shots this season, and average of 2.1 per game which ranks her fourth in the league
• Brooke Smith's quick hands lead a USF defense that is averaging 9.9 steals per game, third in the NSIC
• Smith is third in the conference with 2.6 steals per game with 23 total on the season
• Led by one of the top stealing defenses in the league, the Cougars have the second-highest turnover margin, forcing an average of 7.67 turnovers more than they commit per game

 
Fun with advanced metrics!

• Through roughly four weeks of the regular season, USF Women's Basketball has the top defensive rating in the NSIC, a 73.21 mark, meaning they give up and average of 73.21 points per 100 possessions
• USF's offensive rating is 96.66, which means they would score an average of 96.66 points per 100 possessions
• Their efficiency margin (offensive rating minus defensive rating) is third at +23.45, trailing MSU Moorhead (31.23) and Augustana (23.94)
• Sam Knecht broke the USF D2 record of rebounds in a game with 18 boards against Minnesota Duluth, but her defensive rebounding was even more impressive when the scope was narrowed to just her time on the court
• Knecht grabbed 14 defensive rebounds out of a possible 40 available defensive rebounds, and while only playing 30 minutes, she grabbed 46.6 percent, nearly half, of the defensive rebounds while she was on the floor
• Knecht has a 19.2 total rebound percentage (estimate of available rebounds grabbed while on the floor) and a 28.8 defensive rebounding, meaning she grabs nearly a third of all possible defensive rebounds when in the game
• When factoring the added value of three-point field goals, Brooke Smith posted a 70 percent effective field goal percentage against UMD, hitting three threes and scoring 26 points
• Kaely Hummel, who leads USF with a 40.8 three-point shooting percentage, sees her field goal percentage jump from 44.3 to 55.6 percent, which is second on the team

 
Cougars coming off historic season
In just their fourth year as a member of NCAA Division II, USF Women's Basketball made a splash in both the league and the national scope of D2 Women's Basketball. The Cougars posted a 27-6 record, tying the mark set by the 2010 team, which advanced to the NAIA Elite Eight. In conference play, the Cougars finished with a 17-5 record, a four-win improvement from their previous best NSIC record. With four wins by eight or more points, Sioux Falls rolled to the NSIC Tournament championship, ensuring their first trip to the NCAA Tournament. During the season, USF earned their first top-25 ranking in the WBCA Coaches Poll, checking in at 25th after receiving votes all season. Individually, Taylor Varsho was the first NSIC Player of the Year for the Cougars and she was named the NSIC Tournament MVP while collecting D2CCA All-Region honors after the completion of the season.
 
USF picked to finish ninth overall in NSIC, sixth in loaded south division
After finishing a program-best second place in 2015-16 and rolling to the NSIC Tournament title, Sioux Falls was slotted to finish ninth in the NSIC preseason coaches' poll released two weeks before the season kicked off. USF collected 108 total points in the 16-team poll while grabbing 24 points in the eight-team division, which placed them sixth. Winona State was the favorite in the overall poll, earning 201 points with the most first-place votes (7). Northern State (3), Augustana (4) and Minnesota State (2) all received first-place votes and were slotted second, third, and sixth, respectively, in the overall poll.
 
Leader of the pride: Traphagen continues Cougars' climb in D2
In his ninth season as head coach of the USF Women's Basketball program, Travis Traphagen has taken the Cougars to the NAIA Elite Eight and the NCAA Division II national tournament. A 1999 graduate of Black Hills State, Traphagen owns a 161-83 career record, a .660 winning percentage. In league play – his first three years as a member of the GPAC and the last four in the NSIC – he owns a record of 83-64.