Photo by Jake McNeill: Southwest Minnesota State guard Peyton Blandin (left) drives into the paint during the first half of a womens basketball game against Northern State in Marshall on Saturday. The Mustangs defeated the Wolves 73-53.

MARSHALL — The Southwest Minnesota State womens basketball team didn’t take long to rebound from its Friday night loss to UMary. After the 83-72 defeat ended the Mustangs’ 10-game win streak, the Mustangs looked to be right back to their usual selves on Saturday with a 73-53 win over Northern State.

“We just didn’t have some basketballs go last night,” SMSU head coach Tom Webb said. “We had shots and they just didn’t go in… You don’t want to overreact. You don’t want to underreact, you don’t want to overreact, so we just talked and said, ‘Just be us.’ We were physical today, we were aggressive today, we just looked really, really hungry. Like we wanted to get that taste out of our mouths. It was fun to watch.”

The Mustangs’ hunger was particularly visible on the defensive end. Northern State was the fourth-highest-scoring team in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference heading into the weekend. Its average of 66.9 points per game trailed only Minnesota State, SMSU and UMary. Yet, the Mustangs held them under pace for their scoring average in each of the game’s four quarters. 

The Mustangs’ perimeter defense was particularly tenacious, holding the Wolves to 1-of-15 shooting from 3-point range and just 34% from the field. They were also the first team this season to hold Madelyn Bragg, the NSIC’s second-leading scorer, to single digits with 9 points on 3-of-13 from the field.

“We went attack mode and that was good for us. We went attack, attack, attack, attack and it was a lot better instead of sitting back and letting them control the game,” Webb said. “We did a little bit of that last night where they controlled the game for a little bit, they controlled the tempo and that’s not good for us. We’re not that way, so we went attack mode and we were much more aggressive. It was a fun night.”

All five Mustang starters finished in double figures but Bri Stoltzman led the team offensively, tying Northern State’s Brynn Alfson with a game-high 18 points. Stoltzman shot 7-of-12 from the field while Alfson shot 7-of-11.

In addition to Stoltzman’s scoring, Hannah Parsley and Madison Gehloff each scored 12 points while Sam Wall and Peyton Blandin finished with another 11 each. Blandin was very effective from beyond the arc, shooting 3-of-6 from 3-point range, while Parsley and Wall each made another pair of 3-pointers. As a team, SMSU made eight 3-balls on 34.8% shooting.

Despite being two of the league’s most high-octane offenses, the first quarter started off as a defensive battle. At one point, the teams went nearly three minutes without a field goal. Still, the Mustangs never trailed and a Stoltzman layup in the final minute gave SMSU a 13-10 lead after the first frame.

Stoltzman only continued to heat up in the second quarter, scoring the first points of the frame on a jump shot in the paint. She accounted for 11 of the Mustangs’ 20 points in the frame, with another 6 coming on a pair of Blandin 3-pointers, to pace SMSU to a 33-24 lead at halftime. The Mustangs led by as many as 13 points in the first half and would go on to lead by as many as 22 points after the break. 

The Mustangs put together a 41-35 advantage on the glass. Elizabeth Wagner’s eight total rebounds trailed only Alfson’s 11 and her five offensive boards were a game-high. Stoltzman and Parsley each grabbed another seven boards for the Mustangs while Bragg also finished with seven for Northern State.

Both teams made sure to value their possessions throughout the game; SMSU turned the ball over 10 times, resulting in 9 Northern State points, while the Wolves’ eight turnovers resulted in 7 points for the Mustangs. Rianna Fillipi finished with a game-high five steals for Northern State while Stoltzman added a pair for SMSU. Stoltzman was also one of three Mustangs, along with Parsley and Wagner, to record a block in the game.

The Mustangs improve to 13-7 on the season with the win and their 11-3 conference record places them back in a tie with Northern State for second place in the NSIC. The Mustangs will have another tough test next week when they host Minnesota State on Friday at 5:30 p.m. The Mavericks lead the conference with a 13-1 record against NSIC opponents and a 16-4 overall record. 

The Mavericks haven’t lost a game since November, when they gell 75-64 against No. 25 Minnesota Duluth. They’ve won 14 straight games since then.

“We’ve just got to keep playing. That’s the thing is we’ve got a lot of games ahead of us, we’ve got eight games and all eight teams are really good, so we’ve just got to keep playing and can’t get ahead of ourselves,” Webb said. “Those were two games against two really good opponents, now it’s time to go to the next one.”