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Turnovers plague MSU women against Augustana

Photos courtesy of Sean Arbaut/Minot State athletics  Minot State's Kori Eurich takes a 3-point shot during a women's college basketball game. 

Turnovers proved costly for the Minot State women’s basketball team Friday night.

Augustana suffocated the Beavers with the press all night, en route to forcing 22 giveaways in a 85-64 victory for the Vikings.

“We attacked it like a zone press at first, but once we figured out it was really a man press it was a matter of executing,” Minot State coach Sheila Green Gerding said. “I think in the second half we did a nice job with it, but it might have caught us off guard a little bit.”

Minot State started the game on a 4-0 run and eventually led Augustana 14-9 midway through the first quarter. But the Vikings switched to a press look defensively, which appeared to frazzle the Beavers. Augustana went on a 17-0 run to take a commanding 26-14 lead and led 41-26 at halftime.

“We just go on these empty runs and that has to change,” Green Gerding said. “Point blank, we have to put the ball in the basket. We rebounded the heck out of the basketball, we could probably even live with the turnovers if we put the ball in the basket. That’s what it comes down to.”

Vikings coach Dave Krauth said his team normally sprinkles in pressure throughout the course of a game and kept applying it because it yielded positive results for Augie.

“We’ll change defenses but we will throw pressure in,” Krauth said. “If things happen and our hands are active, we can create turnovers. If we can do that and not get hurt by it, it does good things for us. That 17-0 run, energy is so dependent on making decent plays. On that stretch, ours probably increased and they probably deflated a little bit.”

Minot State did clean up on the glass, as the Beavers outrebounded Augustana 52-34, including 24 offensive rebounds.

“Augustana is usually a great rebounding team and we held them to 10 offensive rebounds,” Green Gerding said. “We really crashed the boards hard, but we have to put them back in.”

Sophomore guard Kari Clements scored 21 points for Minot State, two short of her season-high. She was 7-of-15 from the floor and 4-of-8 beyond the arc.

“I finally saw my shot going in,” Clements said. “I was shooting it in rhythm. It just comes down to everyone getting on the same page and once everyone starts doing that, we can put together some wins.”

Madison Wald had 11 points for MSU, while Kristal Flowers had seven points and 11 rebounds. The Beavers shot 30.9 percent from the floor and 28 percent from long range.

Paige Peterson and Logan O’Farrell each had 15 points for the Vikings, while Presley O’Farrell chipped in 12 and Shelby Selland scored 10. Augustana shot 49.2 percent from the floor and 28.6 percent from long range.

MSU (2-8, 0-4 NSIC) faces Wayne State at 4 p.m. today at the MSU Dome, while Augustana (9-2, 4-0 NSIC) takes on the University of Mary at 4 p.m. today in Bismarck.

Garrick Hodge covers Minot State athletics, the Minot Minotauros and high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @Garrick_Hodge.

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