SIOUX FALLS-- The University of Sioux Falls Women's Basketball Team (19-7, 14-6 NSIC), which has won eight-of-nine games, including six in a row, will wrap up the regular season with a pair of road tests as the Cougars visit city rival Augustana (20-9, 12-8 NSIC) at 5:30 p.m., on Friday (Feb. 22) and Wayne State (13-13, 8-12 NSIC) at 3:30 p.m., Saturday (Feb. 23) at Rice Auditorium in Wayne, Neb.

Cougars sit in 2nd place in NSIC South
With the six-game winning streak, the Cougars have moved into sole possession of second place in the NSIC South and a game in back of Concordia St. Paul at 15-5. For the fourth straight season, USF, which will look to win 20 games for the third time in the past four years, has clinched a home playoff game in the upcoming NSIC Postseason Tournament on Wednesday, Feb. 27. The Cougars have a shot at winning the South title with a little help. If USF goes 2-0 and CSP loses to either Upper Iowa or Winona State on the road, the Cougars would earn the South title. If USF is 1-1, they still will hold onto the No. 2 seed. If they go 0-2 and Augustana is 2-0, the Vikings would earn the No. 2 seed. USF can't finish lower than the third seed. 

USF sweeps WSU and Upper Iowa
Last weekend (Feb. 15-16), the Cougars swept Winona State, 70-68, and Upper Iowa, 69-47 at the Stewart Center. Anna Goodhope scored a career-high 30 points and grabbed eight rebounds rallied past 70-68 Winona State. USF trailed 15-11 after a quarter and 34-26 at halftime before using a 28-13 advantage in the third quarter for a 54-47 lead after three quarters. While WSU had a 21-16 advantage in the final quarter, USF held off the visitors and beat the Warriors for the third straight time at the Stewart Center. Goodhope hit a career-best 12 field goals on 21 attempts and made 5-of-12 from three-point range with a free throw as she reached 30 points for the first time in her career. She also had eight rebounds, and an assist. Also reaching double-digits in points for USF was junior guard Kaely Hummel with 13 and junior guard Jessie Geer with 11. 

Against Upper Iowa, Kaely Hummel scored 20 points, including hitting 5-of-7 from three point range, and Goodhope had a double of 14 points and rebounds with four assists as the Cougars rallied to a 69-47 win. USF outscored the Peacocks, 41-to-11 in the second half after trailing 34-26 at halftime 

USF has tied a season-high with six straight wins
USF has a league-best six-game winning streak and finished the regular season home schedule with an 11-2 mark. The Cougars have won six games in a row twice this year. If USF defeats Augie and Wayne State, they would win eight straight for the first time in more than three years (1-16-16-to2-12-16).  If USF wins one game this weekend, Head Coach Travis Traphagen will have led the program to five 20-win seasons, including the three at NCAA DII.

USF ranks third in the NSIC in scoring at 71.6 points per game and stand second in scoring defense at 58.5 points per game. The Cougars, which have held seven opponents under 50 points, leads the league with a 6.19 turnover margin and rank second in assist turnover ratio at 1.2. USF is first in the NSIC in scoring margin at 13.2 ppg and third in field goal percentage at 42.7 

USF-Augie tied at 8-8 in series over past 16 matchups
Since USF gained full NCAA Division II membership and joined the NSIC in 2012, the Cougars have played their city rival Augustana to a draw in the series at 8-8.  In the 13 regular season meetings, Augustana leads 7-6. Twice in the playoffs, they have met with each team winning a game.  In the NSIC Tournament semifinals in 2017-18, Augie took a 63-43 decision. The Cougars and Vikings split the regular season series as Augustana won the first meeting, 76-75, on Dec. 31, 2017. The Cougars responded with a 64-59 overtime victory on Feb. 9, 2018, taking down the Vikings when they were ranked No. 5 in the WBCA Coaches' Poll. Mariah Syzmanski scored 23 points and Kaely Hummel had 13 in the upset win at the Sioux Falls Arena. In 2016, the two Sioux Falls programs met in the NSIC Tournament title game, and USF earned a 75-57 victory on March, 1, 2016 to advance to the NCAA DII playoffs for the first time. Over the last 12 games, USF is 6-6 against the Vikings and have a 4-3 edge in the past seven games.

WSC leads all-time series, 14-5
Wayne State owns a 14-5 record against Sioux Falls dating to 1985. After the Cougars earned an 81-59 win over the Wildcats at the Stewart Center on Jan. 4 as junior Jessie Geer had a career-best 26 points. Since becoming a member in the NSIC, USF has three victories in the regular and 10 losses against Wayne State but do own a pair of postseason tournament victories over the Wildcats. The Wildcats have never lost two in a row against the Cougars. The Wildcats captured a 65-51 decision on Feb. 10, 2018, despite 13 points and five rebounds from Augusta Thramer and 10 points by Kaely Hummel. On Dec. 30, 2017, the Cougars fell at home to WSC, 74-65, despite 22 points by Hummel. In 2016-17, the Cougars spoiled the Wildcats' postseason with a 75-69 overtime victory in the quarterfinals of the NSIC Tournament which dashed WSC's hopes of a conference tournament title. The Cougars rolled past Wayne State in 2015-16 with an 84-46 win at the Stewart Center. USF would go on to win their first-ever NSIC Tournament title later that season. Despite losing both regular season games in 2016-17, the Cougars earned a 58-49 victory over WSC in the NSIC Tournament semifinals. Earlier in that 2016-17 season, Wayne State defeated USF, 58-50, in Wayne, Neb., despite 14 points and 10 rebounds from Sam Knecht. Later in the season on Feb. 11, 2017, Knecht had 22 points and 12 rebounds but USF fell to WSC, 67-57, at the Stewart Center. 

Hummel ranks seventh in NSIC in scoring
Hummel ranks seventh in the league with 15.1 points per game. Hummel, who had her 60th career double-digit scoring game and 21st of the season against Upper Iowa on Feb. 16, now has 1,096 career points, which is 18th all-time at USF. Just ahead of Hummel on the career scoring list at USF at No 17 is Jill Austin with 1,129 points and Jan Van Ballegooyen at No. 16 with 1,131 career points. In USF's DII era, Hummel ranks second with 182 made three-pointers and third in points with 1,063 points. Taylor Varsho is USF's DII leader in points and three-pointers with 1,379 points (7th, all-time at USF), including 245 treys from 2014-16. USF's career points leader is USF Hall of Famer Courtney Farrell with 2,433 points from 2002-05

Hummel has 12 career 20-point games with six this season. She had a season high 25 in a home win over Concordia St. Paul on Dec. 7. She has a career-high of 29 points against Minnesota Crookston on Jan. 13, 2018. Twelve times this season she has hit three or more three in a game and has five on three occasions including the win over Upper Iowa on Feb. 16 Hummel has 36 career games with at least three made treys and seen with five or more triples. She set a career high with six treys against Augustana on Dec. 31, 2016. 

Szymanski sets career high with 10 assists against Winona State
Junior Mariah Szymanski continues to piece together another solid season. After transitioning to the point gaud midway through the year, she now is averaging 9.4 points, 3.0 assists and 3.0 rebounds. While she scored just two points Szymanski dished a career high 10 assists and had eight rebounds against WSU. Two weeks ago, she averaged 23.5 points, 3.0 rebounds, 2.0 steals and 1.5 assists in leading USF to wins over NSU and MSUM. Syzmanski scored a season-high 33 points, which was the sixth-best in league play this season, in the 73-66 road win over NSU. Szymanski, who scored the second most points in her career (43, Concordia St. Paul, Jan. 20, 2018), hit 11-of-16 field goals and a season-high five triples on seven attempts. She also had six free throws, three steals and three rebounds in 30 minutes on the floor. She now has registered three games of 30 points or more in her career and has nine 20-point games with 30 games in double-digits points in her career. Szymanski, who is averaging 10.2 points per game in league play, has 723 career points.     

Goodhope has big weekend to help USF to sweep of WSU, UIU
Sophomore forward Anna Goodhope averaged 22.0 points, 9.0 rebounds, 1.5 blocks and 2.5 assists as USF defeated Winona State, 70-68 and Upper Iowa, 69-47 to run USF's winning streak to six games. She made 17-of-34 field goals for 50 percent and was 7-of-19 from three-point range and made 3-of-3 free throws. She had a career high 30 points with eight rebounds and an assist in 30 minutes in the win over Winona State. Against WSU, she hit 12-of-21 field goals and made 5-of-12 from three-point range while adding a free throw. She had eight rebounds, and an assist in the victory. Against Upper Iowa, she had her second career double of 14 points and 10 rebounds with a career-best three blocked shots and provided four assists. She hit 5-of-13 field goals and 2-of-7 from three-point range with 2-of-2 foul shots. Goodhope, who is averaging 8.4 points and 5.3 rebounds on the season, now has seven double-digit scoring games, including four straight.

Geer leads USF with 44 steals and is averaging 8.2 ppg
Junior guard Jessie Geer is scoring 8.2 points with 2.0 assists and 2.5 rebounds per game. Geer, who has hit a team-high 48.9 percent from the field, scored a career-high 26 points against Wayne State on Jan. 4 at the Stewart Center. Geer, who has a team-best 44 steals, has had five steals in a game three times and had a career-best eight assists and eight rebounds in the home win over Augustana.