Photo by Jake McNeill: Southwest Minnesota State University guard Madison Gehloff (10) looks to attack the defense during a women’s basketball game against Minnesota Duluth on Dec. 9, 2023, in Marshall. SMSU won 86-80, the second win of a still-active seven-game win streak that the Mustangs will take into this weekend’s games.

Coming off a pair of wins against Bemidji State and St. Cloud State last weekend, the Southwest Minnesota State womens basketball team extended its winning streak to seven games, the longest since the 2004-05 season. With a pair of matchups against Minnesota State – Moorhead and Minot State coming up on Friday and Saturday, SMSU will look to keep the streak going even longer.

After dropping two of their first three conference games, the Mustangs have raced to second place in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference standings with six straight conference wins, putting them at 7-2 in conference play and 9-6 overall. The only team ahead of them is Minnesota State (10-4, 7-1 NSIC). MSU Moorhead is currently eighth in the standings at 5-3 (8-6 overall) while Minot State sits in 13th place out of 15 teams at 1-7 (4-8 overall).

The Mustangs have been red-hot as of late. They had 13 players get on the court in a 14-point win over Bemidji on Friday and 12 players got at least four minutes on the floor in a 24-point win over St. Cloud State. The Mustangs also beat Martin Luther 91-35 on Jan. 2 and have defeated each of their last five opponents by double digits.

Bri Stoltzman was on fire last weekend, scoring 25 points against Bemidji and another 17 against St. Cloud. In addition to finishing both games as the team’s scoring leader, her eight assists over the course of the weekend were also a team-high. Stoltzman is currently third in the NSIC in scoring at 19.2 points per game, trailing only UMary’s Lexie Schneider at 20.6 and Northern State’s Madelyn Bragg at 19.4.

While the Dragons have been below .500 so far this year, they’ve begun to head up as of late. Moorhead has won five of its last six games and is riding a three-game winning streak into the matchup. Natalie Jens has been at the forefront of the team’s success. Jens scored a game-high 29 points in the Dragons’ 63-60 win over Augustana on Friday and sits at eighth in the NSIC with an average of 16.3 points per game on 39% from the field. Terryn Johnson is the team’s second-leading scorer with 9.9 points per game on 44% shooting and also leads the team with 7.8 rebounds per game.

Under head coach Tom Webb, the Mustangs have gone 3-5 against Moorhead. Yet, they’ve stepped up their game as of late to take three of the last four matchups. Among those wins was last year’s 82-75 overtime victory in Marshall. Jenna Borchers, the Mustangs’ all-time leader in 3-pointers made, scored 22 points on 5-of-12 shooting from long range in the game while Sam Wall and Stoltzman added another 19 and 18 respectively. Wall also shot 4-of-11 from long range. The trio accounted for 15 of the Mustangs’ 16 overtime points. Borchers graduated after last season.

While the Dragons have started to heat up, the Beavers have gone cold as of late. They’ve dropped five of their last six games and have lost each of their last six conference games. Last weekend, Minot State lost to Concordia St. Paul 58-39 and followed it up with a 54-50 loss to Minnesota Duluth.

As a team, Minot State ranks 14th in the conference in points allowed at 66.9 per game and 13th in the conference in points scored per game at 58.2. SMSU is last in points allowed at 68.5 but the Mustangs’ 75 points per game trails only Minnesota State’s 75.7. SMSU’s variety of 3-point shooters has been particularly tough to guard; Wall, Peyton Blandin, Stoltzman and Kenzie Jones all rank in the top 10 in the NSIC in 3-pointers made per game.

While SMSU is a smaller team, typically running a five-guard lineup, they’ve been fairly successful on the boards this season with an average margin of plus-2.2. Bemidji State, on the other hand, has been outrebounded by an average of 8.1 rebounds per game. Stoltzman, Hannah Parsley and Madison Gehloff each average more than five rebounds per game while Minot State’s leading rebounder, Lorelei McIver, averages 4.7.

Sydney Gustavsson is the team’s leading scorer with 11.9 points per game on 38% from the field. Emily Srejma is the only Beaver with more than two field goals per game shooting over 40% from the field, converting at a 44% clip. A radio broadcast for the game can be found on 105.1 FM KARL with play-by-play from Ryan Rohlik and a video broadcast and stats for the game can be found online at SMSUmustangs.com.