Sam Wall blows by a defender in the fourth quarter of SMSU's 86-74 win over Northern Michigan in Marshall Saturday afternoon.

MARSHALL — The Southwest Minnesota State Women’s Basketball team pulled out an 86-74 home win over Northern Michigan Saturday afternoon. Jenna Borchers scored 25 points in the game to become the 23rd Mustangs to score over 1,000 career points.

Borchers’ high-scoring performance came courtesy of her hot hand from behind the 3-point line. She went 5-11 from long range in the game.

“I was just focusing on other things besides offense,” Borchers said. “Playing together and moving the basketball created a lot of things when people drive and kick. It’s easy to make threes when they’re wide-open.”

Borchers didn’t carry the scoring load alone, however. Bri Stoltzman and Sam Wall contributed 18 and 17 points respectively. Stoltzman’s five assists and seven rebounds were also both game-highs.

The Mustangs opened with a 9-2 lead early. The Wildcats responded quickly with a 16-2 run, including a stretch of 12 unanswered points, to take the lead.

“We got into some matchup issues in the post a little bit and we kind of didn’t know when we were going to double,” SMSU head coach Tom Webb said.

Despite the scoring run from Northern Michigan, the Mustangs bounced right back. They outscored the Wildcats in each of the next three quarters.

“Our pace eventually can wear you out. That’s the best part is that we can push and push and push and push and push and eventually it gets to be a 40-minute game,” Webb said. “It’s not a 10-minute game then another 10-minute game, it’s a 40-minute game.”

The fast pace of the SMSU offense seemed to be effective as it forced Northern Michigan to make more and more mistakes as the game went on, particularly in the turnover department.

SMSU forced 17 turnovers and turned those Wildcat errors into 27 points. Stoltzman led the charge in the turnover battle with four steals.

Great perimeter defense from the Mustangs stifled the chances of Northern Michigan making a comeback. The Wildcats shot 23% from behind the arc in the game, including 1-8 shooting in the second half.

The game resulted in a double-digit win for SMSU, but the team still has plenty of improving to do, Webb said.

“We’re just so young and we’re still trying to figure out exactly how we want to play, but they did a great job and they compete. I know I’ve said it a lot, but they really do. They like playing games, they like being in the moment, and there’s a lot of growth tonight,” Webb said.

“There were situations where we didn’t execute some things, but it didn’t hurt us because we had a good enough lead late to learn from those things. For us, we’ve just got to keep going.”

After dropping their first two games of the season at the Nebraska-Kearney Classic, the Mustangs have gone on a three-game win streak and sit at 3-2 on the season. They’ll look to carry their momentum into their conference schedule when they host Sioux Falls Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.

SMSU 86, Northern Michigan 74

NMU 20 18 22 14

SMSU 16 23 25 21

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Scoring (FG-FGA-PTS): SMSU (Borchers 8-18-25; Stoltzman 8-13-18; Wall 6-11-17; Madison Gehloff 3-5-11; Hannah Parsley 3-7-9)

Passing (AST-TO): SMSU (Stoltzman 5-1; Parsley 2-1; Maddie Thorfinnson 2-0)

Rebounding (ORB-TRB): SMSU (Stoltzman 2-7; Gehloff 1-4; Parsley 2-3)

Defensive (STL-BLK): SMSU (Stoltzman 4-0; Parsley 2-1; Peyton Blandin 1-0)