Box Score

ST. CLOUD, MINN. – St. Cloud State's Katie Tacheny scored a career-high 31 points and the Huskies forced Southwest Minnesota State into a season-high 25 turnovers to earn a 76-55 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference victory on Friday night in St. Cloud.

Southwest Minnesota State held a 46-40 lead with just under 14 minutes left in the game but SMSU wasn't able to overcome its turnovers to lose its third consecutive to the Huskies.  SMSU trailed 55-53 with 9:30 remaining in the game but was held to just two free throws for the remainder of the game.

St. Cloud State improves to 14-1 overall, 7-1 NSIC, while Southwest Minnesota State drops to 10-8 overall, 2-6 NSIC.

SMSU started the game strong jumping out to a pair of 10-point leads, including holding a 20-10 lead with 10:30 left in the opening half.  SCSU answered back with its own big run and eventually took its first lead since early in the contest on a three-pointer by Rachel Booth with 3:56 left in the opening half to take a 27-24 lead.

SMSU's Sara Leidall responded scoring four straight points to give SMSU a 28-27 lead with 2:19 remaining before the two teams settled for a 28-28 halftime score.

The Mustangs held a commanding 25-10 rebound advantage in the opening half but turned the ball over 16 times leading to 15 SCSU points.  Leidall led SMSU with seven first half points on 3 of 3 shooting including hitting the team's only three-pointer.  Laura Kramer pulled down a team-high six rebounds in the first half.

After falling behind 33-28 in the first two minutes of the second half, Southwest Minnesota State started to heat up from the field connecting on nine of its first 12 shots from the field to regain the lead.  Megan Stadler gave SMSU its first lead of the half at 43-40 with15 minutes left in the game on back-to-back field goals.  Abby Oakland then drilled a three-pointer with 13:56 remaining to push the Mustang lead to 46-40.

St. Cloud State then answered with another big run, outscoring the Mustangs 15-5 in the next four and a half minutes, to build a 55-51 lead with 9:38 remaining and never looked back.

Stadler led the Mustangs with 11 points drilling 5 of 11 shots while collecting six assists.  Leidall added eight points on 4 of 8 from the field.  Kramer finished with a game-high 10 rebounds for her fourth double-digit rebound game of the season.

Southwest Minnesota State will conclude its two-game road trip tomorrow afternoon with a 4 p.m. game at Concordia University in St. Paul.