BEMIDJI, Minn. – Minnesota State women's basketball (11-4, 8-1 NSIC) defeated the Bemidji State Beavers (3-10, 0-9 NSIC) Friday night, 79-51. Mavericks guard Destinee Bursch recorded a double-double against BSU, scoring 20 points and collecting 10 rebounds, and became the 25th player in program history to reach 1,000 career points. With the win over the Beavers, Minnesota State extends its winning streak to nine games.
Minnesota State opened the scoring in the first quarter with a deep two-point make from Natalie Bremer. Bremer drilled another deep jumper, this time for three, to give the Mavericks an early 5-0 lead. A Joey Batt layup put Minnesota State up seven, and a Herzig layup, assisted by Batt, forced an early timeout by the Beavers. With 6:25 remaining in the quarter, Herzig corralled an offensive rebound and made a layup to put Minnesota State up 11-0. Bemidji State's Ella Giorgi hit a three-pointer with five minutes left in the quarter to score the Beavers' first points of the game. After that make, however, Minnesota State went on a quick 6-0 run to put the Mavericks up 18-3. The first quarter ended with the Mavericks up 22-7.
Bemidji State began the second quarter aggressively, going on a quick 7-2 run to start the second quarter, forcing a Minnesota State timeout. A putback layup by Alyssa Hill brought the Mavericks lead within double-digits, 24-16. The Mavericks and Beavers continued to trade buckets back-and-forth until Mackenzie Schweim retrieved an offensive rebound and made an acrobatic putback layup to extend the Mavericks lead back to 10, 30-20. But the Beavers answered quickly, with a Sam Pogatchnik three-pointer to cut the lead back to 30-23. With 1:24 left to play, junior Destinee Bursch grabbed a rebound, pushed the ball up the court and scored a step-through layup to score her 1,000th point as a Minnesota State Maverick. Bursch becomes the 25th player in program history to reach 1,000 points. The Mavericks ended the half up 36-26.
Minnesota State shot 45% from the field in the first half. The Mavericks made just one of their nine three-point attempts and 7-8 from the charity stripe. Minnesota State outrebounded Bemidji State 20-16 in the first half, including seven offensive rebounds. The Mavericks forced 17 first-half turnovers, including 10 steals, and scored 16 points off those turnovers.
However, Bemidji State forced 14 MSU turnovers and scored 10 points on those opportunities. The Beavers shot a 38% field goal percentage in the first half, making 3-15 from beyond the arc and 1-2 from the free throw line.
Bursch was the leading scorer for the Mavericks in the first half, scoring 12 points. She also finished the half with five rebounds and an assist. Bremer and Schweim each scored five points in the first half. Schweim led the team with three steals in the first half. Emily Herzberg, Batt and Herzig each scored four points in the first half.
For the Beavers, Pogatchnik ended the first half with 11 points on 5-8 shooting, three rebounds and two assists. Hill finished the first half with eight points, four rebounds and two assists.
An Emily Russo and-one layup ended a 7-3 run for the Mavericks to start the second half, extending their lead to 43-29. The Beavers and Mavericks traded buckets, with makes from Herzberg and Herzig putting MSU up 53-36. However, Bemidji State went on a quick 6-0 run in less than a minute, capped off by a Pogatchnik layup to bring the score to 53-42. The third quarter ended with a score of 60-42, as MSU ended the quarter on a 7-0 run.
Minnesota State extended its run, going on a 5-0 run in the first minute of the quarter, including an and-one layup from Bremer and an elbow jumper from Batt. Neither team scored for another two and a half minutes until Russo made two free throws and Herzig a jumper to extend the Maverick's lead to 69-42. Isabel Majewski hit a three-pointer in the corner to score the first field goal of the quarter with 5:02 remaining in regulation, bringing the score to 69-46. After trading scores the rest of the way, Minnesota State closed out the Beavers, 79-51.
Against the Beavers, Minnesota State shot 28-63 from the field (44.4%), just 1-16 from three-point range (6%) and made 22-28 from the free throw line (77%). The Mavericks outrebounded Bemidji State 43-37 while collecting 13 offensive rebounds. The team forced 29 turnovers and had 15 steals, scoring 30 points off turnovers. The Mavericks also dominated the paint, scoring 42 points in that area, including 17 on second chances.
Bursch ended with a double-double, scoring 20 points on 8-15 shooting from the field and corralling 10 rebounds. Herzberg ended with 12 points, eight rebounds and two steals. Bremer finished with 10 points, two boards and a steal. Herzig and Batt each ended with eight points. Nine different Mavericks players had at least one steal against Bemidji State.
The Beavers shot 19-60 from the floor (32%) against the Mavericks. Bemidji State shot 36 three-pointers, making seven of those attempts (19%). Despite only having two more fouls than Minnesota State, the Beavers shot 20 fewer free throws than MSU, making 6-8 from the stripe (75%). BSU had 11 offensive rebounds and forced 17 turnovers. The Beavers were led by Pogatchnik, who ended with 18 points, eight rebounds and four assists. Hill finished with eight points and five rebounds.
"Credit to Bemidji State in the second quarter when they settled into our pressure," said Mavericks head coach, Emilee Thiesse. Our defense thrives on being unpredictable and we found ourselves very predictable for a stretch, and offensively we just had too many unforced errors. I'm proud of how we responded and found a way to turn things around." While happy with the win, Coach Thiesse was not ultimately satisfied. "We played a solid 30 minutes tonight, but need to strive for a more consistent and complete game on both ends of the floor."
The Mavericks continue their road trip, traveling to Crookston to take on the Golden Eagles (9-4, 6-3 NSIC) tomorrow evening, Jan. 13, at 5:30 p.m. Minnesota State has won six-straight games against Minnesota Crookston.
