SIOUX FALLS – Before a near-two week break from competition, University of Sioux Falls Women's Basketball will host Chadron State (3-8) on Tuesday, Dec. 19 in a nonconference contest at the Stewart Center at 6 p.m. The Cougars enter their final non-league matchup of the season with a 7-2 record, bouncing back from the first loss of the conference campaign with a 15-point victory at Southwest Minnesota State.
 
Don't miss any of the action
Radio for all USF Women's Basketball conference games are available at KWSN AM 1230 or KWSN.com with longtime USF play-by-play announcer Tom Frederick on the call. Keep up with USF Women's Basketball on all of their social media platforms by visiting the USF Social Media Directory. All of USF's home games and NSIC contests are streamed for free through Stretch Internet and can be viewed at usfcougars.com/watch. Live stats for all home games are available at usfcougars.com/livestats and links to away games are available on the 2017-18 USF Women's Basketball Schedule.
 
Cougar quick hits

• This is the first meeting between University of Sioux Falls and Chadron State women's basketball programs
• A win gives USF four consecutive seasons with at least eight victories in their first 10 games
• USF is tied for third in the NSIC standings with 5-1 record after defeating Southwest Minnesota State for the 10th straight time
• Kaely Hummel moved to fourth in the NSIC in scoring with 15.5 points per game entering Tuesday's contest
• Hummel has scored in double figures all nine games this season and has three 20-point games this year and four in her career
• Jacey Huinker recorded her first career- double-double against SMSU and she is second in the NSIC with 10.5 rebounds per game
• Huinker has grabbed 12 or more rebounds in four of the last five games and she is averaging 10.8 rebounds per game in conference games
• Huinker leads the NSIC in assist-to-turnover ratio with a 3.0 mark (24 assists, 8 turnovers)
• Lauren Sanders (2.3 3FG/gm) and Hummel (2.6) rank first and second, respectively, in the NSIC for 3-pointers made per game
• USF leads the NSIC and ranks 14th in NCAA Division II with 9.0 made 3-pointers per game
• Moira Duffy remains second in the NSIC with 2.4 blocked shots per game and she posted her sixth game of the season with multiple blocked shots after four at SMSU on Saturday
• Mariah Szymanski made her first career start this past Saturday at Southwest Minnesota State
• USF has used five different starting lineup combinations this season, the same amount as the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons combined
• Huinker moved into USF's top 10 for games played in USF's Division II era, appearing in 59 games in her career
• Huinker and Hummel have started 38 games over the last two seasons, which ranks eighth in USF's Division II history

 
Big runs create separation in USF's win at Southwest Minnesota State
As USF continues to form its identity with a young team, a pair critical runs proved to be the difference for the Cougars to earn their 10th straight win over Southwest Minnesota State. In an eight-minute span across the first and second quarters, sophomore Kaely Hummel scored nine points as part of a 19-1 run by USF. Sioux Falls lost their lead in the third quarter then nursed a one-possession advantage until the final stretch run. With a six-point advantage and 5:47 left in the game, USF erupted for a 17-5 run to finish the game. In the game-clinching run, five different Cougars scored and USF assisted on five of the six field goals in that span.
 
Sanders and Hummel rank 1-2 in NSIC 3-pointer list
As the catalysts of USF's trigger-happy offense, freshman Lauren Sanders and sophomore Kaely Hummel rank first and second, respectively, in the NSIC for 3-pointers made per game. Both starters for all nine games this season, Sanders has made 25 threes this year at a 42.4 percent clip – her three-point field goal percentage ranks third in the league – and Hummel has connected on 23 triples at a 37.7 percent rate, the No. 4 mark in the NSIC. Sanders has made a 3-pointer in every game this season – technically, in every game of her career – and has knocked down multiple threes in a game six times in nine tries. Hummel has made a 3-pointer in seven of the nine games, but in every game in which she has connected from deep, multiple three-point attempts have gone in. Hummel has seven games with multiple threes and has five games with at least three 3-pointers. Another key cog in the Cougar offense, Mariah Szymanski has made 12 threes this year, or 1.2 per game, which is tied for 14th in the league.
 
Injuries, youth force Traphagen into more-than-usual starting lineups
Through two of USF's most successful women's basketball season, and the two most fruitful at the Division II level, the starting lineup has been a model of consistency for head coach Travis Traphagen. Throughout the 2015-16 and 2016-17, USF Women's Basketball featured just five different starting lineups. In 2015-16, the Cougars showcased only two different groups of starters. Last season, the Cougars rolled out the same starting five in 28 of their 30 games. This year, the Cougars have shown five different starting lineups through nine games. No group of five USF players have started more than three games together and the last three games have featured a different lineup for each. This season, six different players have made their first career starts, including two freshmen. Most recently, sophomore Mariah Szymanski made her first career start against Southwest Minnesota State, joining Kaely Hummel and Lauren Sanders, who have both started all nine games this year, in the backcourt. Senior Moira Duffy bided her time and has made six starts this season, including the first of her career, and frontcourt partner junior Jacey Huinker has started every game in which she has played this year, missing one due to injury. That group of five proved to be effective on Saturday and the advanced data has backed it up. In 19 minutes of action, which is more than 15 minutes more than any other combination played together in the game, Szymanski, Sanders, Hummel, Huinker and Duffy outscored their opponents by eight points. Before Saturday's game, that five-some had only played two minutes together this season, but hinted they may be a key factor for the remainder of the season.
 
Cougars picked 10th in NSIC preseason poll, sixth in south division
USF was picked to finish 10th by the league coaches in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference preseason coaches' poll. The Cougars picked up 123 points in the poll, just three points from eighth. MSU Moorhead was tabbed the overall favorite while Northern State and Augustana each received first-place votes. In the eight-team south division poll, USF was picked sixth and Augustana earned the top spot. The past two seasons, USF has outperformed their preseason billing, placing second in 2015-16 and taking fifth in 2016-17 after they were picked ninth.