> Box Score

ABERDEEN, S.D. - Southwest Minnesota State women's basketball was held to a season low scoring as Northern State, who is No. 1 in scoring defense in Division II, defeated the Mustangs 77-42 in the first round of the NSIC Sanford Health women's basketball tournament Wednesday night in Wachs Arena.

SMSU (3-23, 3-19 NSIC) finished shooting 27 percent (15 of 54) from the floor and suffered from 3-point range as it finished shooting 15 percent (2 of 13) from downtown. Hope Bonlander and Tiffany Gehl led the Mustangs with eight points each while Lauren Hedlund and Abby Connell added seven points. Hedlund grabbed a team-high seven rebounds in the loss.

NSU (22-6, 16-6 NSIC) finished shooting 50 percent (29 of 58) from the floor as Rachel Krogman led the charge with 23 points while also grabbing a team-high 10 rebounds for a double-double. Megan Mutchler and Paige Waytashek both added 11 points in the win.

NSU started the game with an 11-2 run to jump out to an early lead with 15:10 in the first half, but Hedlund put in a pair of free throws at 14:44 to break the Wolves run.

The Wolves put together a 9-3 run over the next three minutes to push their lead to 20-7 with 11:26 left in the half.

Both teams traded points until Waytashek scored a jumper with 1:31 left to give the Wolves their largest lead of the half at 39-20. NSU would lead 40-20 going into half time.

NSU controlled the boards in the first half as they held a 23-14 advantage and also shot 51 percent to SMSU's 30 percent.

After the break, the Wolves would continue to produce and started on a 6-2 run but the Mustangs would string together the next five points to cut the deficient down to 46-27 with 16:23 left to play after a pair of three throws by Emilee Duske and a 3-pointer by Gehl.

The Wolves would go on to control the game going down the stretch and would lead 74-33 with 3:41 for their largest of the night.

The Wolves held the lead the rest of the game and will advance to the quarterfinal round of the NSIC Sanford Health women's basketball tournament and will face Augustana.

Southwest Minnesota State finished the season 3-23 overall and 3-19 in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference.