Wayne, Neb. – The Minnesota State women's basketball team earned a 93-80 win against the Wayne State Wildcats Saturday afternoon at Rice Auditorium in the final regular season road game in the 2019-20 season.
With the win, the Mavericks improve to 14-10 (11-9 NSIC), while the Wildcats drop to 16-10 (11-9 NSIC).
The Mavericks jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the opening minutes after
Tayla Stuttley drilled a pair of threes and put in a layup. The Wildcats first got on the board with a three-point shot and cut the Minnesota State lead to 15-9 at the first media timeout. The scoring continued for each team in the quarter and the Mavericks finished the first with a 27-23 lead.
Offense continued to come easily for the Mavericks in the second quarter as they added to their lead to take a 43-35 advantage into the media timeout with 4:22 to go in the half. Minnesota State finished the half with a 12-2 run to take a 55-37 lead into halftime.
Stuttley finished the half with 15 points while
Joey Batt scored 14 points off the bench. As a team the Mavericks made 9-15 three-point shots in the half compared to 4-13 for the Wildcats. MSU also shot 54.1% from the field in the first half.
In the third quarter the Wildcats managed to shave eight points off the Maverick lead through tightened defense Minnesota State took a 74-64 lead into the fourth. The opening minutes of the fourth quarter saw the Mavericks outscore the Wildcats 8-4 in the first two minutes. That early push put the game out of reach for Wayne State, and MSU was able to hold off any comeback to earn the win 93-80.
Batt finished the game with 22 points to go along with four assists while
Stuttley finished with 21 points and nine rebounds.
Kristi Fett recorded her second straight double-double with eighteen points and 14 boards to go along with three blocks.
As a team, the Mavericks converted 12 three-point opportunities compared to five from the Wildcats and outscored the Wayne State bench 37-25.
The Mavericks return home for the final weekend of the regular season with a pair of games against Upper Iowa and Winona State Friday and Saturday.
