MANKATO, Minn. --- The No. 23 Minnesota State women's basketball team completed the season series sweep over No. 20 Concordia-St. Paul with an 80-67 win, pushing its home winning streak to 21 games.
With the win the Mavericks improve to 7-3 overall and 4-2 in conference action, while the Golden Bears fall to 9-4 overall and 4-2 on the circuit.
The Mavericks and Golden Bears were all knotted up at 7-7 with 17:15 to play in the first half, before MSU would heat up and open a 15 point lead, 43-28 with 2:36 to play in the first half. CU responded with a 3-0 run to end the half, cutting the Maverick lead to 43-31 going into intermission.
Senior
Ali Wilkinson (Blue Mounds, Wis.) paced the Mavericks with 18 first-half points, in addition to six rebounds, three steals and two assists. Freshman
Britney Scherber (Bloomington, Minn.) added eight points off of the bench in the first 20 minutes.
Collectively, the Mavericks connected on 13-of-25 (37%) from the field, 4-of-10 (40%) from behind the arc and 13-of-17 (77%) from the charity stripe. The Golden Bears connected on 10-of-25 (40%) of their first half shots from the field, 2-of-8 (25%) from behind the arc and 9-of-12 (75%) from the charity stripe.
The Mavericks opened up a 50-35 lead with 15:35 to play, before the Golden Bears went on an 8-0 run cutting the lead to 50-43 in favor of MSU with 12:40 to play.
MSU would then find its rhythm as Wilkinson poured in 11 second half points to give the Mavericks the 80-67 win.
Wilkinson paced the Mavericks with 29 points and nine rebounds, while Scherber poured in 13 points off of the bench and junior
Aubrey Davis (Bloomington, Minn.) added 10 points.
As a unit, MSU connected on 26-of-75 (35%) of its shots from the field, 6-of-19 (32%) from behind the arc and 22-of-31 (71 %) from the stripe. The Mavericks forced 17 Golden Bear turnovers, while only committing nine.
The Mavericks return to action Jan. 3 as it hosts St. Cloud State, opening tip is slated for 6 p.m.
-30-