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SMSU WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: Long-distance call

Mustangs connect on team-record 19 3-pointers in 90-67 win over William Jewell

Photo by Sam Thiel SMSU’s Sadie Stelter fires a 3-pointer during their game against William Jewell University on Saturday. The Mustangs defeated the Cardinals 90-67.

MARSHALL – With not much working with their inside game against William Jewel University on Saturday, the Southwest Minnesota State University women’s basketball team were forced to take things outside.

The Mustangs made it count from long range and broke a record in the process.

Connecting on a team-record 19 3-pointers, SMSU shot lights-out from beyond the arc, and defeated the Cardinals 90-67 in the final day of the Ramada Inn Classic Saturday.

“They weren’t letting us get to the rim and were really packing the paint, so we had to make some shots and we made some shots,” SMSU coach Tom Webb said. “Once you get going, we have some kids that can make shots and they just did that as a whole team. It was fun to watch them.”

With only two ties and two lead changes the entire night, Webb felt his team was able to show their maturity and resiliency as a group after a tight victory on Friday.

“I think we showed great maturity and just battled back; (Friday) was a tough one and you just have to keep going and we’re going to play fast,” Webb said. “I thought we showed resilience and toughness, that first quarter wasn’t very good, they were scoring at will and then we kind of enforced our will a little bit and just played really fast.”

A tight start

Fast pace was immediate as both teams pushed the ball to start. With William Jewell holding a slim 7-5 lead, the back-and-forth play led to a Sadie Stelter 3-pointer that kept the deficit at two at 12-10 with five minutes left in the first quarter. Both teams traded points the rest of the frame until a 3-pointer from Meleah Reinhart brought the Mustangs to within two at 19-17 going into the second quarter.

Webb said they had to rely on their depth and that their strength is playing together and they have to use that to their advantage when playing with quick pace.

“It shows real depth when you play 10 kids 10 minutes or more, you have to rely on the whole team,” Webb said. “The strength of our team is our team, it’s not an individual, we don’t have enough of those to go win a championship so we have to have a team. We kept pouring it on and kept playing fast and when you play with that pace, it’s hard.”

The Cardinals got out to a strong start to begin the second quarter, using an 8-3 run to build a 27-20 lead, but the Mustangs battled back. After a personal 5-0 run by Reinhart made it a two-point game, Stelter would connect on a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to one at 31-30 with four minutes to go.

That’s when the sharp-shooting began.

Catching fire

Coming into Saturday’s game, the Mustangs were averaging roughly eight 3-pointers made per game. SMSU quickly reached that mark in the first half, connecting on eight triples in the second quarter alone, and closed the first half on a 15-5 run over the final 3:23 of the opening half.

Freshman guard Jenna Borchers got the run started with a 3-pointer to give SMSU its first lead since the beginning of the game before back-to-back threes from Erin Baxter and Borchers made it 40-34 with two minutes to go. SMSU’s three-point shooting continued to shine through, as Caleigh Rodning and Baxter tacked on two more triples to give the Mustangs a double-digit advantage going into the break at 46-36.

The hot shooting only increased in the second half, with SMSU opening the offensive floodgates in the third. The Mustangs went on a 13-0 run to start the third quarter, highlighted by a pair of 3-pointers from Sarah Buysse and Borchers to give SMSU a 59-36 lead with 6:37 remaining in the quarter.

The Mustangs continued to add to their lead in the frame, going up as many as 25 before a 3-pointer from Rodning and a buzzer-beating jumper from Emily Buysse made it 73-45.

In the fourth, SMSU maintained its lead of at least 26 points throughout the entire frame, with Sarah Buysse and Emily Buysse connecting on 3-pointers before Baxter scored the final five points of the night for the Mustangs as SMSU took home its second consecutive victory.

Baxter, who led all scorers with 21 points, said it felt great to be able to create a strong rhythm behind the 3-point line throughout the entire night.

“It’s great,” Baxter said. “We knew that we wanted to shoot a lot of threes, so (Saturday) we were making them and it was working in our favor.”

Rodning and Reinhart each poured in 17 points while Stelter chipped in 10 and Borchers had nine. The Mustangs shot 29 of 64 (45.3 percent) as a team, including 51.4 percent from behind the 3-point line (19 of 37) while making 13 of their 15 free-throw attempts.

Rodning led in rebounds with 10 to record a double-double while Baxter added six. Rodning and Borchers led in assists with three each.

“We were just playing super well,” Baxter said. “We were finding the open shots and we had really tough defense and made some stops.”

Dialing up

the defense

Holding a ten-point lead going into the second half, the Mustangs continued to apply the defensive pressure and were able to hold William Jewell in check in the second half.

The Cardinals were limited to just nine points in the third (3 of 16 shooting) – including going scoreless for the first four minutes of the second half.

Webb said he was pleased with how their aggressiveness on defense in the third quarter and that made the difference in a crucial spot in the game.

“The third quarter was huge for us. We knew we had to come out and extend that lead in the third quarter and that was kind of where it happened,” Webb said. “We just got really down in the stance and really guarded half-court, better help defense, real high-end closeouts. They just looked really determined; I was really pleased with our defensive effort in that third quarter.”

The fourth quarter was better for William Jewell from an offensive standpoint, but the Cardinals had fallen behind in too much of a deficit to overcome.

Up next

The win was also the first consecutive victories for SMSU since the 2015-16 season. SMSU (2-2) will now continue its homestand with a matchup against North Central University on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. Webb said their biggest takeaway is to continue to play with pace and play freely and have trust in their teammates as they grow throughout the season.

“Pace is a big deal to us, how fast we play is a big deal for us and how free we play is a big deal for us,” Webb said. “Trusting our teammates is a big deal; those are the things we have to continue to do and grow with those and get better defensively.”

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