Photo by Samantha Davis: Southwest Minnesota State University's Natalie Nielsen goes up against her defender for a shot in the first quarter against Sioux Falls Saturday afternoon in Marshall during a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference matchup. The Mustangs defeated the Cougars 87-79 behind Nielsen's 26 points and 10 rebounds.

MARSHALL — Audrey Swanson, Natalie Nielsen and Nicole Maenke all scored more than 20 points to power the Southwest Minnesota State University womens basketball team to an 87-79 revenge win over Sioux Falls Saturday afternoon in a Northern Sun Intercollegiate game. A well-balanced scoring and strong rebounding effort helped the Mustangs hold off the Cougars’ second-half push down the stretch.

“We knew coming in tonight that they [USF] were a great team and that they were going to fight until the end. It was just [about] coming together as a team and fighting every possession, whether it goes good or not, just [having a] next-play mentality; keep working,” SMSU senior forward Maddie Thorfinnson said, noting SMSU wanted to continue making one defensive stop at a time and making sure to execute on offense.

SMSU built a 49-33 halftime edge and led by as many as 20 points with a strong perimeter and paint presence. Sioux Falls, however, opened the second half on an 11-0 run and eventually cut the score down to 4 points with 1:18 to go before clutch shots from Nielsen and Swanson saved the win.

SMSU outrebounded USF 41-30, leading to 18 second-chance points. The Mustangs also hit six 3-pointers in the first half, nine total, to the Cougars’ six.

“I think [our shooting] has been phenomenal this year. It’s really fun to share the ball. I know that if I’m not making any shots, I can pass to my teammates, and they’ll make the shots,” Swanson said. “We’ve been doing a really good job of getting everybody the right look. We know where people can score the best. Getting people in their spot, into their zone, is really something we focus on.

The Mustangs and Cougars met just over a month ago on Nov. 25, where USF ultimately came away with a 92-80 win behind a 54-34 advantage in paint points.

This time around, SMSU outshot USF 48-46 in the paint.

“We definitely had a great game with that [scoring inside]. People were finishing pretty well at the rims, which was awesome to see,” Thorfinnson said. “Then, that gave us shots [when] they [USF] started digging, and then we would have [to] kick [out to] 3.”

Nielsen led the Mustangs with 26 points, shooting 9 for 10 at the foul line, along with her 10 rebounds and two steals. Swanson shot 4 of 9 from 3 for 24 points along with 11 rebounds and a team-high four assists, while Maenke followed with 21 points and three assists.

The team went in knowing they’d have to try to win every rebound and box out heavily, Thorfinnson said, noting the Cougars’ aggressiveness on the boards. Swanson added that she also felt the team’s defense was more present in this matchup compared to November’s, along with having Nielsen returning from injury after missing the teams’ last matchup.

USF went on its 11-0 run to start the second half and cut the game to two possessions, 49-44, before Elizabeth Wagner ended it with a shot down low. Swanson hit her third 3-pointer of the night to spark back some Mustang momentum and a 58-44 lead minutes later, SMSU responding with a 9-0 run.

When it mattered most, Nielsen came down with the offensive board for the and-1 putback with 59 seconds left. Swanson then hit a corner 3 dagger with 18 seconds on the clock.

“We thought about a timeout. We all figured that we had enough energy to keep going, and we didn’t give them another timeout,” Swanson said about managing USF’s late surge. “So, we kept our energy going, got some stops, scored one more time, got them off their roll, and it worked. We did it well.”

Despite a back-and-forth start, the Mustangs were efficient from all areas on the court to pull away to a 20-point lead in the first half. SMSU shot 6 of 11 from deep in the first, while USF hit two.

Swanson’s right-handed drive was also an early difference maker, as SMSU continued to feed her the ball to take the drive and led all scorers with 16 first-half points.

Swanson said the team is confident in their shooting ability from deep, but also looks to attack as much as possible.

USF got off to a 6-0 start after the Mustangs missed their first four shots, but a Swanson 3 from the top of the key got SMSU on the board.

Swanson hit another contested 3 minutes later to give SMSU a 19-13 lead, before the Cougars responded on a 6-0 run to bring the early game back within a possession.

Yet, Nielsen got the ball down low for the and-1 for a 22-17 lead, followed by SMSU forcing a shot clock violation on USF’s final possession, which turned into Swanson finding Wagner down low to end the first quarter.

Swanson and Nielsen already had 12 points each after hitting back-to-back layups in the opening minutes of the second quarter, giving the Mustangs a double-digit lead, 31-21, to force an early USF timeout.

SMSU brought the Cougars late into their shot clock on numerous possessions, forcing USF to take late contested shots. In return, the Mustangs’ ball movement and patient offense also shined.

“We knew going into the game we wanted to pressure them [USF]. We knew they don’t like our pressure, and we wanted to take it at them,” Swanson said of SMSU’s defensive effort. “We unfortunately, lost the last game we played against them, so we were all a force up in pressuring them in this game, and it went out our way.”

A pair of Maenke 3-pointers, along with a driving layup after splitting through three defenders, gave SMSU its 41-25 edge with 4:30 to go in the half.

SMSU built its largest lead of the night 47-27 with 2:22 to go in the first half.

SMSU (7-6, 5-3 NSIC) will next hit the road to Bemidji State (6-6, 3-5) on Friday for another NSIC matchup at 7:30 p.m.

With the win, SMSU currently sits in fourth in the NSIC South standings, just behind USF, which moves to 8-5 overall and tied with the Mustangs 5-3 in conference play.