Photo by Jake McNeill: Southwest Minnesota State University guard Bri Stoltzman (2) drives past a Northern State defender during the first half of a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference womens basketball game on Friday night at the R/A Facility in Marshall. Stoltzman scored a career-high 41 points as SMSU defeated Northern State.

MARSHALL — Bri Stoltzman started off the No. 23 Southwest Minnesota State University womens basketball team’s game against Northern State on Friday red hot. The senior guard scored 16 first-quarter points on perfect shooting and finished with a career-high 41 as the Mustangs pulled away early for an 82-72 win in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference play.

“I didn’t worry about the number at all. I mean, that’s not me, I just want to get a win,” Stoltzman said. “I’m here to compete. I’m here to get my teammates involved… They give me the most confidence in the world.”

Stoltzman’s career-high bested her 36-point performance against Northwest Missouri State last season. Her previous career-high against a conference opponent was 31 in a win over Minnesota Duluth last season, and she scored 30 in an NSIC tournament win over Northern State last season as well.

The performance made Stoltzman the first Mustang since Michelle Bruns in 2004 to eclipse 40 points. Bruns was also the last Mustang to hit 15 or more field goals in a game before Stoltzman’s 15 of 19 outing on Friday.

“[Stoltzman’s] special. I mean, she’s really, really good,” SMSU head coach Tom Webb said. “You could tell she knew she kind of had it going early, so she was aggressive. She’s so smart and she knows the system, so for her, it’s just fun to watch. I mean, really, to be honest, sometimes you just sit back and watch.”

Coming off an NSIC Player of the Week selection, Stoltzman continued to look like the class of the conference early with perfect 7 of 7 shooting in the frame. She went into the locker room for halftime still near-perfect, shooting 9 of 10 from the field with a pair of 3-pointers with a hand in her face as SMSU led 46-27.

SMSU built its lead up to as many as 21 points with nine minutes left in the third. Yet, Northern State kept coming. The Wolves inched their way back and cut SMSU’s lead down to 5 with a Madelyn Bragg layup with 90 seconds to play. Bragg led Northern with 20 points on 7 of 22 shooting in the game.

Yet, with the game on the line, Natalie Nielsen stepped up when it mattered most. She received a hot potato as time winded down on the shot clock in the final minute, but attempted a shot from beyond the arc and knocked it down for her first career 3-pointer, a dagger.

“I knew it was a low shot clock, so I had to shoot it, but also they had been helping off of me on ball screens, really trying to sink in on our guards driving,” Nielsen said of the play. “As I was setting the screen, I was calling for the pop because I knew that was probably the only way we were going to get a shot off.”

After Nielsen’s shot, 52 seconds remained on the clock in a three-possession game. On the defensive end, she came up big again with a steal to prevent Northern State from getting the opportunity to make it a two possession game again. The Wolves intentionally fouled Stoltzman and she knocked down both shots to surpass the 40-point milestone and seal the win.

Nielsen attributed the play to the team switching its ball-screen defense to give Northern State a different look.

“I think we needed that,” Webb said of the team withstanding Northern State’s late rally. “It’s something that we’ve talked about, like we need a little stress in the late game. How are you going to function? How are you going to handle it? What are you going to do? And they just continue to fight. And then Nat hit a big 3 and that kind of sealed it… I think the cool part is that this team really likes each other, they believe, and they’re tough.”

Nielsen finished the game with a block and a steal, as did Stoltzman. For the Wolves, Michaela Jewett logged three blocks and a pair of steals while Bragg added another pair of blocks and a steal.

While the Mustangs held a narrow 25-22 edge in the rebounding battle at halftime, the Wolves dominated the offensive glass in the second quarter. Northern State grabbed seven offensive rebounds in the frame. Still, the Mustangs mitigated the damage and held Northern State to 4 second-chance points off those rebounds.

“I think we were defending with a high rate, I just think that we were probably just assuming that we’d get the rebound,” Webb said. “You’ve got to finish the possession, and I think sometimes when you defend so hard and play so hard, you’ve just got to keep going. Once in a while, you just mentally relax and you get a couple. But we didn’t give anything up, you know, 4 points on seven [offensive rebounds], we’ll be okay.”

Northern State finished the game outrebounding SMSU 20-7 on the offensive glass and picked up the pace as the game progressed, finishing with a 20-6 advantage in second-chance points. Audrey Swanson led SMSU on the boards with 11 rebounds, all defensive, along with 12 points for a double-double. Stoltzman also grabbed eight rebounds while Nielsen grabbed another six, including two on the offensive glass.

Michaela Jewett led Northern State with 12 rebounds, five of which were offensive.

In addition to her scoring production, Stoltzman tied Northern State’s Rianna Fillipi with a game-high five assists. With the defense zeroed in on her, Stoltzman frequently kicked the ball out to her teammates with no-look dimes. She turned the ball over once while Fillipi turned it over twice.

While Stoltzman took care of the ball, SMSU struggled with valuing possessions at points. The Wolves turned the ball over six times to SMSU’s 14, and outscored SMSU 18-8 on those turnovers.

SMSU led 65-46 with three minutes left in the third quarter when Fillipi scored 5 unanswered points to end the quarter with the Wolves facing a 14-point deficit. The Mustangs built their lead back up to 18 points in the fourth, but a 10-2 Northern State run trimmed SMSU’s lead down to 75-65 with three-and-a-half minutes to play.

Peyton Blandin finished as SMSU’s second-leading scorer, tallying 15 points on 5 of 10 shooting with a pair of treys. She also dished out three assists in the game.

SMSU has thrived in the interior this season but also had their shots falling from long range. The Mustangs connected on five of their seven second-quarter 3-point attempts while Northern State missed each of their four attempts. Maddie Thorfinnson, Peyton Blandin, Nicole Maenke, Brynn Busse and Stoltzman each knocked down one from beyond the arc.

Northern State outscored SMSU 42-28 in the paint. Yet, SMSU finished the day shooting 50.8% from the field to Northern’s 34.9%, and shot 9 of 17 from 3-point range to Northern’s 3 of 23.

The Mustangs opened the game scoring each of the first 7 points, including a pair apiece from Swanson and Thorfinnson and another 3 from Stoltzman. Jewett ended the NSU drought with a jumper three minutes in, but Stoltzman answered with one of her own on each of the next two possessions and eventually hit a free throw to give the Mustangs their first double-digit lead, 14-4 with five minutes left in the first.

Jewett scored 17 points for Northern State in the game, shooting 8 of 15 from the field, while Fillipi and Izzy Moore added another 13 and 12 respectively.

SMSU improves to 15-2 overall and 9-2 in the NSIC with the win, keeping them tied with No. 22 Concordia-St. Paul for second place in the NSIC behind Minnesota State’s 12-0 mark. The Mustangs will look to extend their win streak to seven games when they host sixth-place UMary (9-6, 6-5 NSIC) today at 5:30 p.m.

“We’ve just got to keep playing. They’re doing a good job, certainly competing hard every night. They’re an amazing group to coach,” Webb said of his team. “They’re fun. You just kind of want to take it one day at a time and enjoy every second you get with them and just keep playing. So we’ll see what happens.”