SIOUX FALLS – Looking to snap a four-game losing streak in the penultimate weekend of the regular season, University of Sioux Falls Women's Basketball is tasked with road games at the top two teams in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference south division. The Cougars (13-9, 10-8 NSIC) open the weekend with city rival and current NSIC overall leader No. 5 Augustana (21-1, 17-1 NSIC) on Friday, Feb. 9 at 6 p.m., and the game will be featured on Midco Sports Network (HD Channel 622; SD Channel 26 for Sioux Falls Midco subscribers). Closing their final road trip of the regular season, USF will head to Wayne State (20-6, 14-4 NSIC) for a 4 p.m. game on Saturday, Feb. 10.
 
Don't miss any of the action
Radio for this weekend's USF Women's Basketball games is available at KWSN AM 1230 or KWSN.com with longtime play-by-play announcer Tom Frederick on the call. Pregame show starts 20 minutes before tip and includes a preview with USF head coach Travis Traphagen. Friday's game against Augustana University will be featured on Midco Sports Network live. All of USF's home games and NSIC contests are streamed for free through Stretch Internet and can be viewed at usfcougars.com/watch. Keep up with USF Women's Basketball on all of their social media platforms by visiting the USF Social Media Directory. 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

• USF can clinch a winning record and clinch a top-four finish in the NSIC south division with a win
• A win would also secure the fourth winning season, both for overall record and NSIC record
• The Cougars are currently on a four-game losing streak, their longest since a six-game losing skid during the 2013-14 season
• USF's scoring defense is fourth in the NSIC, holding opponents to 61.6 points per game
• Augustana ranks sixth at 62.1 opponent ppg and Wayne State is eighth, allowing opponents to 62.5 points per game
• When adjusting for pace (possessions per game), Augustana jumps to the top of the NSIC with a defensive rating of 0.83 points allowed per possession and Wayne State ranks second at 0.85 points allowed per possession and USF is fourth at 0.87 points allowed per possession
• Augustana plays at the fastest pace in the NSIC, averaging nearly 75 possessions per game, Wayne is third at 72 per game while USF is in the middle of the pack with an average pace of 69 possessions per game
• Offensively, Augustana is also the most efficient team, scoring 1.09 points per possession while Wayne State ranks third at 1.07 and Sioux Falls is ninth in the league with an O Rating of 0.95
• Sioux Falls and Augustana have never been shy about letting fire from behind the arc and they enter Friday's game tied for first in the league with 187 made 3-pointers this season, an average of 8.5 points per game
• Leading the three-point attack are Mariah Szymanski (40.5%) and Kaely Hummel (34.8%), who rank second and third, respectively in the NSIC in three-point field goal percentage
• Hummel is second in the NSIC with 56 made 3-pointers this year, 2.5 per game, Szymanski is fourth at 2.1 per game and Lauren Sanders is ninth with 1.9 per game
• Hummel continues her breakout sophomore season, leading the Cougars with 16.5 points per game, which ranks fourth in the league and in the top 100 nationally
• Hummel has scored 10 or more points in all 22 games this season and her season total of 363 points this year is already sixth in USF's D2 history and 25 back from Sam Knecht's 2015-16 mark of 388
• Jacey Huinker leads the league in two categories, assist-to-turnover ratio and rebounding, which shows her impact beyond scoring
• After eight assists and just one turnover last weekend, Huinker held her top spot in the NSIC with a 3.1 assist-to-turnover ratio and she moved up to No. 2 in NCAA Division II with her team-leading 68 assists to just 22 turnovers
• On the glass, Huinker is unmatched in the league as she overtook the league lead with a 10.2 rebounds per game average, which also ranks 24th in NCAA Division II
• Huinker has grabbed 10 or more rebounds in 12 different games this year and she has never been held to fewer than six rebounds in a game this season
• On the defensive glass, Huinker is pulling down and NSIC-leading 7.6 defensive rebounds per game and, when adjusted for playing time, she is grabbing 29 percent of USF's opponent's misses when she is on the floor
• USF's lone senior Moira Duffy has started 18 games this season and been a force on defense for the Cougars as she just passed former All-American Sam Knecht for the single-season blocked shots record with 67 this year
• Duffy's average of 3.0 blocked shots per game this year leads the league by a healthy margin and she ranks 10th in NCAA Division II with that mark
• Playing on the post and about 25 points per game, Duffy's block percentage (estimate of blocked two point field goals when on the floor) is 11.4 percent, meaning she blocks more than one out of every 10 opponent's shots while she is on the floor

 Playoff picture
With a 10-8 record in NSIC play, the Cougars are in third place in the NSIC south division. They hold a one-game lead over Winona State (9-9 NSIC) and are four games clear of Minnesota State (6-12 NSIC), which gives them a magic number of one, in terms of clinching a top-four finish in their division. Since USF joined the NSIC for their maiden season as members in 2012-13, the NSIC Tournament first round has pitted the opposite seeds against each other from the different divisions (Example: No. 1 seed from the north division will host No. 8 seed from the south division). However, new legislation has changed seeding slightly with seed Nos. 1-4 still set to host Nos. 5-8 of their opposite division, but if the lower seed (Nos. 5-8) has a better conference record, the home court will be flipped and played at the team with the better record's home site. If the records are the same between the two teams, the lower seed can still host if it defeated the higher-seeded team on the road during the regular season, but if they did not or hosted the higher-seeded team, the higher seed will still host. 

Series Histories
                  vs. Augustana – AU leads 7-5 in USF's D2 era
After a run of USF winning five of seven games against their city rival, Augustana took back the series edge with two consecutive wins for a 7-5 advantage heading into Saturday's game. (Note: record reflects games in which USF was a full-time NCAA Division II member.) The Cougars broke through in their fourth game against Augustana, winning 84-72 on the Vikings' home court. The win sparked a string of five wins over a seven game span, which includes the NSIC Tournament Championship, a 75-57 victory that clinched the Cougars their first NCAA Tournament berth. USF won the first of two matchups with their rivals last season, but the Vikings split the season series with an overtime victory on the Cougars' home court. Earlier this year, Augustana earned a 76-65 victory at the Stewart Center despite Mariah Szymanski's 31-point effort. Heading into the game at the Sioux Falls Arena, USF holds a 3-2 record on the road against Augustana since they joined the NSIC in 2012-13.
 
                  vs. Wayne State – WSC leads 9-4
A traditional power in the NSIC, Wayne State has been a thorn in the Cougars' side in their six-year tenure in the NSIC. The Wildcats are 9-4 against Sioux Falls and have never lost two in a row against the Cougars. Sioux Falls has also never won a road game at Wayne State, owning a 0-5 record entering Saturday's game at Rice Auditorium. USF earned their first win in the series with an 81-63 decision at home on Feb. 16, 2013. The next season, the Cougars spoiled the Wildcats' postseason with a 75-69 overtime victory in the quarterfinals of the NSIC Tournament, dashing WSC's hopes of a conference tournament title. The Cougars blew out Wayne State in 2016, an 84-46 win as USF would roll on to win their own NSIC Tournament title later that season. Despite losing both regular season games last season, the Cougars earned a 58-49 victory in the NSIC Tournament semifinals before falling in the championship game as they looked to repeat as champions. Earlier this season, Wayne State erased a USF lead late in the third quarter for a 74-65 win, despite a combined 40 points from Kaely Hummel and Mariah Szymanski.
 
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.