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MSU women get first NSIC win

By Frank Rajkowski

The St. Cloud Times

ST. CLOUD, Minn. – Sometimes a struggling team just needs a shot in the arm to help get things on track.

Minot State coach Sheila Green Gerding hopes her team got that Friday night.

The Beavers finished 30-for-46 (65.2 percent) from the field en route to beating St. Cloud State 77-63 in NSIC action at Halenbeck Hall.

It marked Minot State’s first conference victory of the season, and its first win over the Huskies on the road since joining the league.

“One of the things we’ve struggled with this year is that we haven’t competed in every facet of the game for a solid 40 minutes,” said Green Gerding, whose team improved to 1-6 in NSIC play and 3-10 overall.

“We did that tonight. Our kids were locked in and focused.”

Freshman guard Mariah Payne led the way with 22 points. Sophomore guard Kari Clements added 13.

And junior forward Kristal Flowers, a transfer from Lake Region State, finished with 18 rebounds. The Beavers owned a 47-30 edge on the boards as a team.

“(Flowers) is a kid who transferred in and has been trying to find her way,” Green Gerding said. “She’s starting to get more comfortable in her role. And she really went up and got rebounds tonight.”

Senior guard Betsy MacDonald led the Huskies with 15 points. But St. Cloud State shot just 29.1 percent (23-for-79) from the field and was just 4-for-34 from 3-point range.

“We just didn’t shoot the ball well tonight,” Huskies coach Lori Fish said. “We settled for way too many outside shots and we didn’t do a good job of being patient and working the ball inside.

“Some of our shots were right there. It’s not like we were forcing a ton of them. But when they’re not falling, you have to go to the next option. And we didn’t do that tonight.”

Minot State, meanwhile, will look to close out 2016 on a winning note when it plays at Minnesota-Duluth at 4 p.m. Saturday.

“Sometimes you just need a win like this to get over the hump,” Green Gerding said. “We have to start believing we can win and then build on that.”

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