Box Score

MANKATO, Minn. – No. 3 Minnesota State, Mankato used a balanced offensive attack, featuring four players scoring in double figures, to defeat Southwest Minnesota State 91-64 and hand the Mustangs a conference loss Saturday night in Mankato, Minn.

Tori Fink finished with a team-high 11 points for SMSU and was almost matched in the scoring column by teammate Abby Kenealy, who had 10 points.

Heather Johnson's 22 points led MSU; Alex Andrews also had 15, Flecia Foster had 13 and Joanne Noreen added 12.

MSU, The NSIC and Central Region's top ball club, jumped out to an early  lead, using a three-pointer by Liz Trauger to go up 12-4.

An Andrea Waslsh three-pointer to make it 15-4 with five minutes in gave the Mavericks their first double figure lead of the evening.

The Mustangs committed five turnovers in the first five minutes of the contest.

But the Mustangs put together a nice offensive series of thier own; a pair of back-to-back three-pointers by Megan Wittkop got the Mustangs within one at 23-22.

MSU turned in on from there, turning four more SMSU turnovers into eight points and taking another double-digit lead, this one by 10, at 35-25 with 2:38 remaining in the opening half.

MSU had 19 points off turnovers in the first half, taking a 42-31 advantage into the locker room.  SMSU committed 14 turnovers.

The Mustangs were, however, red hot from behind the arc, connecting on five of six three-point attempts.

Abby Oakland led SMSU with eight points at the break, while Heather Johnson's 12 points was tops for MSU.

The Maverick lead only got larger in the second half as MSU scored the first eight points to take a 17-point lead.  A 20-point advantage was in firmly in the hands of MSU with eight minutes remaining.  The Mavericks stretched that to 25 points with 1:30 left, settling on a 27-point lead to finish the game.

MSU never trailed in the contest and shot 51.5 percent from the field.

The  Mustangs were seven of 14 from behind the arc but committed a season-high 27 turnovers. 

SMSU travels to Wayne State on Wednesday.  Tipoff for the conference contest is set for 6 p.m.