Women's Basketball

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Women's Basketball Report: January 27
Nebraska-Omaha 71, St. Cloud State 70

St. Cloud, Minn. -- As opportunities fell short, so did St. Cloud State as it suffered a nail-biting loss to the Nebraska-Omaha, 71-70, at Halenbeck Hall.

There was no scoring in the final three minutes of action as the Huskies, trailing by as much as 13 in the second half, came back to within one point at 3:11 as Erika Quigley hit her 11th field goal of the game. The final minute was gruelling for both teams as UNO missed two shots in the final 30 seconds, and the Huskies took three shots in the final 11 seconds, unable to capitalize on their opportunity.

Quigley picked up her sixteenth double-double of the season, tallying a team high 29 points, grabbing 11 boards, assisting four shots and charted 3 blocks. Kayla Rengel passed in seven assists, while charting 14 points and nine rebounds. Shannon Francis scored 15 points, including three-three point baskets in which she claimed the SCSU record for most three-pointers in a career, totalling 188 with six games left in the regular season. She also tallied four assists and five rebounds.

The Huskies held UNO's team leading scorer, Karen Thies (17.1 ppg), to ten points, but she was able to mark a double-double with 10 rebounds. Ashley Freerkson led the Mavericks with 17 points. Both Lacey Geitzenauer and Cala Hargrove were huge off the bench for UNO, tallying 10 and 11 points respectively.

South Dakota 66, Minnesota State 63

Mankato, Minn. - Despite leading for a majority of the contest, Minnesota State suffered a 66-63 loss to South Dakota in front of 3,023 fans in Taylor Center.

Only South Dakota's starters scored in the win, including a game-high 18 points from forward Ashley Robinette. The Coyotes shot only 34 percent (17-50) from the floor, while MSU posted a 36 percent (25-54) effort on the game. The loss marked Minnesota State's fifth-straight.

MSU held its largest lead of 10 points at 16-6 with 15 minutes left in the first half. But from that point, the team went nine minutes without scoring, until Flecia Foster broke the silence with a lay-up. The score became knotted, 22-22, with 1:55 left in the first, but MSU managed to walk away with a four-point lead at halftime, 28-24.

Minnesota State held its lead until there was just 7:47 left to play, when Robinette hit an unassisted jumper. From then on, the score remained in favor of USD.

While only USD's starters scored, MSU earned 25 bench points. The same went for fast breaks - the Mavericks scored 12 points off the fast break, while South Dakota scored zero points.

Heather Johnson and Tiffany Moe each scored a team-high 10 points for MSU, both finishing 4-of-8 from the field. Liz Trauger grabbed seven rebounds.

Shannon Daly scored 17 points for the Coyotes, hitting 13-of-14 free throws and only two field goals. Jenna Hoffman sunk 11 points, while Bridget Yoerger and Jeana Hoffman each had 10 points.

North Dakota 81, Augustana 62

Sioux Falls, S.D. -- Behind a strong inside game and potent outside shooting, North Dakota defeated Augustana 81-62 at the Sioux Falls Arena.

North Dakota never trailed in the game, racing out to a 17-5 lead in the first four and half minutes. Kierah Kimbrough paced the charge by scoring seven of her game-high 17 points during the stretch. The Fighting Sioux built the lead to 17 points, 38-21, with 4:48 left in the half. But UND did not score a field goal the rest of the half.

Augustana responded by scoring 9 straight points during a 12-2 run to close out the period and make the score 40-33 at the break. Andrea Walsh fueled the Viking charge with 7 points.

North Dakota quickly regained the momentum to start the second half. The Fighting Sioux scored the first seven points to boost their advantage to 47-33.

Augustana managed to pull within 11 points at 66-55 with 5:33 to play, but North Dakota put the game away with an 11-0 run to make the score 79-55 with two minutes to play.

Kimbrough led four UND players in double figures. Carissa Jahner scored 15 points and was 3 of 4 from 3-point range, while Ashley Langen and Danye Guinn each scored 11 points. Guinn was perfect on all 3 of her 3-point attempts. Kimbrough led all players with 10 rebounds, while Langen added nine.

Walsh and Alison Adamson led Augustana with 15 points apiece. Ashley Holiday added nine points, five rebounds and two blocked shots. Her blocks gave her 76 rejections, breaking her own single-season record of 75 set last year.

North Dakota finished the night shooting 47 percent (29 of 62) from the field and 56 percent (9 of 16) from 3-point range. Augustana, meanwhile, shot 35 percent (22 of 63) from the field, its worst percentage in a home game this season, and 33 percent (5 of 15) from 3-point range.