Alex Eisen/MDN Minot State senior Mariah Payne (4) looks to pass the ball around a Dickinson State defender Wednesday evening in Minot. Payne finished with a career-high 26 points.

Waiting to check into her second-ever collegiate game and her first inside the Minot State Dome, Minot native Brenna Tschetter peeled off her warm-up top and tossed it back toward the Minot State bench.

The jersey flew awry and landed on the scorer’s table. While Tschetter politely apologized for the unintentional mishap, MSU senior guard Mariah Payne jumped up from the bench and retrieved the freshman’s warm-up jersey.

Head coach Mark Graupe, unaware of what was truly going on, only saw Payne jogging over to the scorer’s table.

“That’s why I said, ‘You aren’t going back in, get back here.'” Graupe recalled.

Payne smirked while heading back to the bench. The senior guard from Australia had already solidified an eye-catching stat line in the Beavers’ home opener.

Payne finished with a career-high 26 points in 24 minutes to lead the Beavers (1-1) to a dominating 84-43 win over NAIA competitor Dickinson State (1-2) Wednesday evening in Minot.

“Tonight, our energy was great and my mindset was completely different going into the game,” Payne said. “That really showed, but I have to give credit to the girls because I wouldn’t get the open shots without the screens and things like that. This wouldn’t be possible without them.”

Minot State locked down Dickinson State early on and built up a sizeable lead in the first five minutes. The Blue Hawks were held to 27.3% shooting from the floor for the game.

The post-up play and elbow screens from junior Haley Hildenbrand and sophomore Anna Counts was a go-to scoring option for the Beavers in the first half.

The frontcourt duo combined for 22 points on 10-for-11 shooting in the first 20 minutes.

Counts ended a rebound shy of a double-double (career-high 14 points, nine rebounds). Hildenbrand was perfect from the field (6-for-6) for 12 points, and she also grabbed seven rebounds.

“I just got open shots on the plays that we ran,” Hildenbrand said. “That’s what the defense was giving me, so I took it.”

Payne drove to the basket for a buzzer-beating first-half layup, which gave her 19 points going into halftime. With seven more points coming early in the third quarter, Payne bested her previous career-high of 23 points.

Nearly half of her 26 points came on 3-pointers (4-for-6). Payne also had three rebounds, two assists and only one turnover.

“We wanted to come out hard and set a standard,” Payne said. “Get the crowd excited and show them what we can produce this season.”

The Beavers led 46-19 at halftime.

With the victory well in hand, Graupe started to rest his starters heading into the fourth quarter. Twelve different Beavers got minutes, with all of them attempting at least one shot.

“I see a difference from the freshman to sophomore year,” Graupe said. “So, we are trying to get the freshmen their feet wet so they can make that same big jump… I think this was a great game for them.”

Tschetter, despite the enthusiastic support from the Beavers’ bench, was unable to score her first collegiate points. But she did pull down three rebounds.

“That’s my favorite part of the game,” Payne said about cheering on her teammates. “There are 15 girls on this squad, and we go at it every day in practice. To see the other girls get opportunities is exciting.”

Unfortunately denied her first collegiate points as well was ShaAnn Danelson, who had a breakaway in the final seconds but was adamantly told not to shoot by Graupe since the shot clock was turned off.

“It’s like taking a knee in football, you don’t run it up,” Graupe said. “I kind of felt bad and said, ‘Whoops, I should have let Sha get it.’ But, at the same time, you teach them as freshmen. To the girl that made the pass (to Danelson), I told her, ‘You don’t pass that.’ ‘But, she was open.’ Well, you don’t. But they are learning.”

MSU nearly had six players in double figures scoring-wise: Payne (26), Counts (14), Hildenbrand (12), Calli Delsman (10), Danielle Rizzari (8) and Mollie Wilson (8).

The Beavers shot 54% and were 7-for-17 on 3-pointers.

The Blue Hawks were led in scoring by Sydney Clark with 8 points.

The 43 points given up is the fewest the Beavers have allowed since Nov. 22, 2017, when they thrashed Yellowstone Christian College 80-25.

“We want to make an impression right off the bat,” Graupe said. “Get people interested in our team, so they want to come back. I told them, ‘Let’s just play hard, with enthusiasm.’ Sometimes it’s not about win or loses, people just want to see you play hard — something exciting to watch. So, I hope we did enough of that.”

The Beavers are off until Saturday, Nov. 23, when they will host Yellowstone Christian College at the MSU Dome.

Alex Eisen covers Minot State athletics, the Minot Minotauros and high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @AEisen13.