Photo courtesy of Morgan Lair, Texas Women's University: Southwest Minnesota State University forward Natalie Nielsen (34) defends a University of Alabama-Huntsville player during a non-conference womens basketball game at Kitty Magee Arena in Denton, Texas on Thursday.

DENTON, Texas — A slow first-quarter start was too much for the Southwest Minnesota State University womens basketball team to overcome on Friday afternoon as the Mustangs dropped their non-conference season opener against Alabama-Huntsville at the Division II Conference Commissioners Association Classic. SMSU fell behind by 11 points after the first frame and never recovered in the 70-65 loss.

Both teams struggled early, combining for 7 points in the game’s first three-and-a-half minutes. Yet, the Chargers started to find a rhythm halfway through. A pair of layups from Lili Wilken helped Huntsville expand its lead to as many as 12 points before a Natalie Nielsen free throw with four seconds remaining to cut the deficit to 18-7 at the break.

Nielsen finished the night with a 13-point, 13-rebound double-double on 3 of 8 shooting. She also had a defensive impact for the Mustangs with two blocks and a steal.

Audrey Swanson, coming off a junior campaign in which her scoring average jumped up to 16.2 points per game after averaging 2 as a sophomore, picked up right where she left off. Swanson had even more of a scoring responsibility coming into this season following the graduation of Division II All-American Bri Stoltzman and she delivered, finishing Friday’s game with 20 points on 7 of 15 shooting with a pair of 3-pointers. 

Swanson’s six rebounds also tied her with Kylan Gerads for second on the team behind Nielsen, though Huntsville still built up a 44-35 rebounding edge with a 19-15 advantage in second-chance points.

The Chargers maintained their lead until the end of the third quarter at 53-50, but SMSU again came out swinging in the fourth to make a run at the comeback. A Swanson 3-pointer and a Nielsen layup brought the Mustangs within a point three minutes in, and Gerads hit another layup a minute later to knot up the score at 58-all with six minutes remaining.

SMSU never regained the lead, however. Huntsville’s lead swelled up to 6 points before Maddie Thorfinnson knocked down a 3 for her lone points of the game, cutting the gap to 66-65. Yet, Wilken hit a layup to give the Chargers their lead back.

Swanson attempted a game-tying 3 with a minute left to play, but the shot was no good. Nielsen came up with a steal to give the Mustangs one last opportunity to tie up the game, but she couldn’t get the layup to go down with two seconds to play and Wilken knocked down the clinching free throws to lock up the win for the Chargers. 

Wilken finished the night with a game-high 28 points on 11 of 21 shooting. She knocked down each of her six attempts from the charity stripe, her 11 rebounds were a team-high and her four assists trailed only Bella White’s six. 

Huntsville’s lead peaked at 13 points in the second quarter, 22-9, when the Mustangs started to snap back into form. A Nielsen layup and 6 straight points from Nicole Maenke brought the Mustangs back within single digits. 

Huntsville ended the Mustangs’ 8-0 run with a Wilken layup, but SMSU went on to make it a one-possession game when a Maneke 3 made the score 28-25 with 90 seconds to play. The Chargers started to pull back away, but Swanson hit a layup at the buzzer to leave SMSU with a 34-29 deficit at the half.

Maenke opened her sophomore campaign with her first collegiate start and scored 16 points on 7 of 16 shooting. Gerads also made her first start as a Mustang after transferring from St. Cloud State ahead of her sophomore season, finishing with 10 points on 4 of 7 shooting.

While 3-point shooting has been the Mustangs’ calling card in recent years due to the play of players such as Jenna Borchers, Sam Wall and Peyton Blandin, they struggled from long range on Friday. SMSU shot 4 of 21 (19%) from beyond the arc, though the Chargers also had their issues and made only 5 of 24 (21%). 

Huntsville’s bench was one of the difference-makers on the night. The Chargers got 13 points from non-starters, while a third-quarter 3-pointer from Brynn Busse gave the Mustangs their only points off the bench. 

Alabama-Huntsville scored the first bucket of the second half on a White layup, but a Maenke jumper and 4 points from Swanson brought SMSU back within a point, 36-35. 

SMSU falls to 0-1 on the season with the loss and will wrap up the Tip-Off Classic today when it returns to Kitty Magee Arena to take on Tampa (Fla.) at 1 p.m.