DENVER, Colo. – The Minnesota State women's basketball team (5-2) defeated the Regis Rangers (2-5) on the road, 92-88. After a big first quarter, the Rangers slowly cut into the Maverick lead, but MSU closed out the game thanks to a 30-point game from junior guard Natalie Bremer. Senior guard Destinee Bursch scored 20 and passed out seven assists in the win.
 
Bursch made a heavily contested layup to open the game seven seconds into the game. The Rangers hit a corner three to take the lead, but the advantage switched back to MSU after a floater in the lane from Bursch. She found Bremer cutting to the hoop for an assisted layup and after a turnover, the Lake City, Minn. native made an and-one layup to put the Mavericks up 9-3. Elisabeth Gadient hit the first three of the game for Minnesota State to put the team up by seven. After Rhyan Holmgren made a layup in the lane, Bremer was good on a turnaround jumper from the left wing to put the Mavericks up 16-7. Mackenzie Schweim hit a jumper in the lane to put the team up 20-10. Bremer found Holmgren under the basket on a fast break opportunity following a steal to put Minnesota State up 13. The quarter ended with 27-12 on the scoreboard.
 
The Rangers hit a three-pointer to get the scoring started in the second period. Over the course of a minute, Bursch went on a 6-0 run by herself to put the Mavericks up 33-15. Following another three from Regis, Hannah Leverson hit a two in response. Another layup from Bursch and two free throws from Bremer put the team up by 17 with 6:25 left in the half. A trio of free throws for the home team cut the Maverick lead to 14. Bremer hit a jumper in the lane to put MSU up 42-25. The Rangers scored six-straight points before Hannah Herzig made a layup to maintain a 13-point lead. RU made it a 10-point game with a layup but Gadient sunk a three to bring the score to 49-36. A two-point jumper but an up-and-under layup from Bursch handed the Mavericks a 51-38 lead headed into the locker room for halftime.
 
Minnesota State shot 53.8% from the field in the first half. The Mavericks made two threes through 20 minutes and 7-10 from the free throw line. MSU had 10 steals and nine assists in the first half and outrebounded the Rangers 22-19. Bursch ended the first two quarters with 17 points, two rebounds, three assists and a steal. Bremer had 13 points, two boards, an assist, one steal and one block in the first half, but picked up her third foul late in the second quarter.
 
Bremer got the Mavericks on the board with a two-pointer, but the Rangers hit a corner three kept the MSU lead at 13. Two jumpers from Regis made it an 11-point game and hit a three off an inbound to cut the deficit to single-digits. Minnesota State's lead was trimmed to just six after a pair of free throws. After Bursch nailed two shots at the charity stripe, the Rangers hit a three. Herzig made a floater, but RU responded with its own layup to make the score 63-58. It was an even 7-7 close to the quarter, 71-65.
 
Herzig grabbed a defensive rebound and ran past everyone for a bucket at the rim to start the scoring in the fourth quarter. The Regis team cut the Maverick lead to two after a baseline jumper and another from the left elbow. After Gadient made two shots at a charity stripe visit, the Rangers hit another three to shrink their deficit to one. Bremer and Gadient responded with two layups. Out of a media timeout, Athena Saragoza for Regis hit a three and one of her teammates sunk another to put the Rangers up 80-79. The lead swung back to MSU as Bremer hit a pull-up jumper which forced a timeout from the home bench. She made two free throws to put the Mavericks up by three and Herzig had a steal-and-score to make the score 85-80 with 2:28 remaining. Regis hit a jumper from the right block to cut the lead to three with less than a minute remaining. Herzig hit a two-pointer to put Minnesota State up 87-82 with 30 seconds left. Erin Fry drew a foul on a three-point shot and made all three free throws to make it a two-point game. Bremer was fouled and made two shots at the free throw line to put the Mavericks up by four with 14.7 seconds left in regulation. Fry hit another three to cut the score to 89-88. Bremer got fouled on the inbound and made one free throw, but missed the other. The Rangers tried to throw an inbound pass to the hoop, but it was intercepted by Herzig who was fouled and made both of her free throws. The Mavericks closed out the game, 92-88.
 
The Mavericks shot 49.3% from the field in the win against the Rangers. The team didn't hit a three in the second half, finishing with two makes from beyond the arc. MSU shot 22-30 from the free throw line, grabbed one more rebound than Regis and dished out 14 assists. Minnesota State had 15 steals, 26 points off turnovers and 46 points in the paint.
 
Bremer tied her career-high with 30 points in the win. She shot 11-16 from the field and 8-9 from the charity stripe. She grabbed four rebounds, dished out an assist, had two steals and a block. She was one of five Mavericks with four boards. Bursch had 20 points and seven assists in the win. Gadient tied her career-high in scoring also with 15 points. She ended with four rebounds, two assists and two steals. Herzig scored a season-best 15 points, grabbed four boards and three steals.
 
Saragoza ended with 26 points on 7-15 three-point shooting in the loss for Regis. Fry had 22 points and 10 assists.

"I'm really proud of how our team responded today and found a way to seal the game down the stretch," said MSU head coach Emilee Thiesse. "This was a tough 3-game road swing and we learned a lot about some areas we can clean up as we head into NSIC play next weekend. We had a fun trip to Colorado and built some great team chemistry. We're excited to get back to work and continue to move forward as a team and raise our standard."
 
Next weekend, the Mavericks are on the road for a pair of conference matchups against Wayne State (3-2) and Augustana (1-5). The game against the Wildcats is on Friday, December 6 at 5:30 p.m. The following day, the contest versus the Vikings is at 3:30 p.m. on December 7.