GOLDEN, Colo. – Minnesota State women's basketball (4-2) fell to the Colorado School of Mines Orediggers (2-4) in a close game, 92-88. The Mavericks fell short despite a 25-point performance from junior guard Natalie Bremer and a great game from Destinee Bursch who ended with 17 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.
 
The Orediggers jumped out to an early 7-2 lead but Minnesota State responded with a 14-2 run to take the lead, 16-9. Mackenzie Schweim and Bremer each scored and-one layups during the stretch. Bremer made two layups to put the Mavericks up by 20-13, but Mines made two-straight threes to cut the MSU lead to one. After the first quarter, the score was 24-21.
 
After Elisabeth Gadient and Bursch opened scoring for the Mavericks in the second quarter with two jumpers, Colorado Mines made to layups to keep the score close. Schweim drove inside for a pair of layups and another score from Bursch put the team up 34-25. Jenna Siebert for the Orediggers went on a 7-0 run by herself to cut the lead to one, The home team took the lead back with a floater from Joesphine Howery for her 13^th point of the game. After her score, the Orediggers scored 10 consecutive points to jump out to a big lead. Howery had eight points on the run. After a pair of layups for MSU, the half ended with the home team leading 47-40.
 
The Mavericks shot 50% from the field in the first half but went 0-7 from beyond the arc. The Orediggers shot 56.3% in the half to gain the advantage. Bursch led the Mavericks with 10 points through 20 minutes. Bremer and Schweim each scored nine in the first half. Howery for Colorado School of Mines ended the first half with 21 points.
 
Bursch drove in for a layup to get the Mavericks on the board in the second half, which cut the Oredigger lead to five. Schweim and Bremer made layups after a pair of MSU free throws to put the team back on top 48-47. Gadient hit Bremer with a pass that led to the Mavericks' first three of the game to give the team a four-point lead. After some back-and-forth scoring and an Oredigger three, Hannah Herzig made a layup to put Minnesota State up by two with 3:41 remaining in the quarter. The Mavericks maintained their lead until the end of the period, as a pair of free throws from Colorado Mines put the home team up 70-68 headed into the fourth.
 
Two free throws from Gadient knotted up the score at 70-70 early in the next quarter. Siebert hit a three for Mines to put the team up by five and another score for the Orediggers made it 81-74 with 6:23 to play. Bremer cut the deficit to four with her second three of the game. She hit another jumper to make the score 83-81 with five minutes left in regulation and a layup from Ava Stier tied the game at 83-83. Siebert hit a shot out of a timeout to put the Orediggers up but Stier tied it up again with a layup off an assist from Bursch. Mines took another two-point lead with a minute left, but Stier made a pair of shots from the charity stripe to put the Mavericks up 88-87 with 0:37 on the clock. After the Orediggers took back the lead with free throws, Minnesota State committed a costly turnover to give possession back to Mines. The Orediggers closed out the game by a score of 92-88.
Minnesota State shot 48.5% from the field and made just 2-11 from beyond the arc against Colorado School of Mines. The team forced 19 turnovers and scored 20 points from those takeaways.
 
Bremer ended with 25 points, three rebounds and three steals. The junior shot 10-20 from the field in the game and made the team's only two three-pointers. Bursch ended with 17 points, eight rebounds and seven assists in the loss. Schweim tallied 11 points and Stier and Herzig each ended with 10.
 
The Orediggers shot 51.5% against the Mavericks. Siebert led all scorers with 34 points in the game.
 
Minnesota State plays the last game of its holiday road trip tomorrow against the Regis Rangers (2-2). The game tips off at 4 p.m. CDT tomorrow, November 30, in Denver.