WINONA, Minn. – University of Sioux Falls Women's Basketball held a lead after one quarter before suffering a scoring drought and their furious comeback bid would fall short in a 70-60 loss at No. 14 Winona State on Friday night. The Cougars suffer their first defeat of the season, dropping to 5-1 overall with a 1-1 record in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference.
 
Brooke Smith was big off the bench for the Cougars, sparking their comeback with four 3-pointers and a team-high 18 points. Madi Robson had eight points in the first quarter and was key for USF's comeback as she finished with 17 points. Sam Knecht countered an off night on offense with 11 rebounds.
 
The Cougars never trailed in the first quarter thanks to eight points from Robson and five more from Alyson Johnsen. USF scored on three of their first four possessions to build a 7-0 lead after consecutive Robson jumpers.
 
The Cougars and Warriors (7-1, 2-0 NSIC) traded baskets before Johnsen drilled a 3-pointer to give USF a 17-8 lead. After a Jacey Huinker layup gave the Cougars an eight-point lead with 2:37 left in the quarter, Winona State scored seven straight to cut the USF lead to one, 19-18, after the first quarter.
 
Andi Mataloni stopped the WSU streak after the quarter break with a three and Kaely Hummel hit two free throws to put USF up 24-18 just 30 seconds into the quarter. Despite the quick start for the Cougars, the second quarter would be all Winona State as USF would fail to score for the remainder of the period and enter the intermission down 35-24.
 
After the break, USF's scoring drought surpassed 10 minutes before Knecht hit a free throw at the 8:15 mark of the third quarter. Winona State pushed their lead to 18 points at 43-25 before Brooke Smith started the Cougar comeback with two free throws.
 
Robson connected on her third three of the game and Smith followed with her first triple to bring the deficit to 45-33 with just under four minutes to play in the third quarter. Robson responded to a WSU three with a jumper and Smith hit her second three to bring the deficit back to 12 points. Knecht hit two more free throws and Robson converted a tough layup after a Jacey Huinker steal to bring the score to 52-42 through three quarters.
 
Staying hot to open the fourth quarter, Smith hit two threes in the first minutes of the final frame, cutting the Winona State lead to seven points each time. On the next possession, Mariah Szymanski hit a baseline jumper to trim the Winona State lead to five points, 55-50 with 6:49 to play, but the Cougars would fail to get an closer than that.
 
The teams traded free throws and Kayla Timmerman hit a jumper for two of her game-high 25 points, putting Winona State back up by eight. Huinker hit a free throw and Johnsen connected on a jumper to reach seven points for the game, cutting the WSU lead back to six points. Out of gas after nearly erasing an 18-point deficit, the Cougars fell behind by 14 points before Smith made two layups in the final minute of the game to bring USF to a 70-60 final score.
 
The Cougars conclude their three-game NSIC road trip at Upper Iowa tomorrow, Dec. 3 at 45 p.m. in Fayette, Iowa.