SIOUX FALLS – With 21 points from Mariah Szymanski, the University of Sioux Falls Women's Basketball Team outscored Minot State, 49-25 in the second half, and rolled to an 83-52 win in the first round of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Sanford Health Tournament on Wednesday (Feb. 26) at the Stewart Center.

With their second straight victory, the Cougars captured their fifth straight opening round win and moved to 14-6 overall in the NSIC Tourney. The Cougars will face Winona State at 5:30 pm on Sunday (March 1) in the tournament quarterfinals at the Sanford Pentagon.

"I am really pleased with our effort overall. We worked hard and fought through some issues in the second quarter. But we attacked and played strong on both sides of the court," said USF Head Coach Travis Traphagen, who won for the 242^nd time in his career. "In the second half we found a rhythm. Everybody played well together as a team. When we go fast and do it in combination with each other then we are really good," said Traphagen, whose team has recorded 25 wins for the second time in the NCAA DII era (2015-16).

Szymanski, who scored nine points in the first quarter, reached 20 points in a game for the 11^th time in her career. She also moved into seventh place on the career three-point chart as she hit 3-of-4 and now has 170 for her career. With 21 points, she has 1,158 career points.  USF also had double-digit points from senior Jessie Geer who had 13 to go with three rebounds. Senior guard Kaely Hummel added 11 points and now has 1,694 for her career. With another three she has 266 for her career, which ranks first all-time at USF.

After USF took a 19-11 lead in the first quarter, MISU had a 16-15 edge in the second and trailed 37-34 at the break. As has been the case frequently for USF, the Cougars used a big third quarter to build a double-digit lead. With a 21-9 advantage USF led 55-36 through three quarters. Then, USF hit five threes and rolled up a 28-16 advantage in the fourth quarter to earn the 83-52 win and a third straight win over the Beavers. In fact, USF earned its second win of the season and in both games scored over 80 points (87-54 at Minot State, Jan. 18).

Tonight, USF was 29-of-64 for 45.3 percent and hit on 9-of-23 from three-point range. However, USF was 8-of-14 in the second half which helped USF pull away. At the foul line, USF was effective as they made 16-of-19 for 84.2 percent. They also had a big edge inside with a 32-18 margin in paint points. And by forcing 13 turnovers while committing just six USF built an 18-10 margin in points over turnovers. In addition, USF had a 15-11 margin in second chance points and a 14-2 advantage in fast break points.

Scoring Recap –
On an assist from Augusta Thramer, who had eight points, five rebounds and a game-high five assists, Szymanski tied the game at 2-2 at the 7:31 mark. Later Szymanski made a three and with her seven points early helped USF build a 9-7 margin.  When the Cougars closed the quarter on an 8-0 run they had a 19-11 lead and Syzmanski was a big reason with nine points in the opening 10 minutes.

She continued her solid play and with a lay-up in the second quarter (7:04), she helped USF take a 27-16 lead.  At 4:12 of the quarter, sophomore Kiara James made two foul shots as USF took a 34-20 lead.  However, MiSU closed the half with a 7-0 run to move within 34-27 at the half-time break.

In the opening two quarters, USF was just 10-of-30 for 33.3 percent and hit just 1-of-9 from three. However, they hit 13-of-14 from the free throw line and had a 25-18 rebound edge to grab the halftime advantage. USF had an 8-2 edge in second chance points and with a 12-6 edge in bench points, the Cougars crafted a halftime margin.

In the third quarter, the Cougars used the talents of Hummel to build a double-digit lead. With 5:40 to play, she knocked home a pairs of threes plus a jumper as the eight points enabled the Cougars to take a 48-32 lead with 4:34 to play. At that point, MiSU couldn't sustain runs. Geer started to get her offense in high "Gear" and helped USF to a 55-34 lead to 1:06 to play. At the quarter, USF led, 55-36. In the third quarter, USF was a sizzling 9-of-15 for 60 percent and made 3-of-4 from three. Meanwhile MiSU couldn't crack USF's defense and made just 2-of-19 shots which included one of four from three.

In the fourth quarter, Traphagen's squad continued to cruise on offense. With an attack mentality matched by solid perimeter shooting USF worked the lead to 62-38 at the 7:09 mark when Thramer connected.  When Geer hit another shot, and this time from three-point distance, USF led, 71-41, and only 3:10 remained as the issue was decided.

After that USF cleared the bench, which outscored their opponents, 12-11, as Lauren sanders had eight points, including a pair of threes. In the fourth quarter, USF was 10-of-19 for 52.6 percent and knocked in 5-of-10 from three.