Women split to finish season

Huskies will head to South Dakota State for first-round playoff matchup on Tuesday

Jonelle Streed

The SCSU women's basketball team earned a split over their last regular season weekend with a 87-72 victory over Morningside College on Friday night and a 68-54 loss to the University of South Dakota. The split gave the Huskies a No. 6 seed for the NCC playoffs where they will meet No. 3 seeded South Dakota State University.

The Huskies took control early in the game when Junior Jessica Abrahams knocked down a jumper to give them a 10-9 lead with 15:51 left. Thanks to a great shooting performance, SCSU would only build on their lead the rest of the night. The Huskies put together a 23-5 run with about 7:00 left in the first half and took a 45-24 lead into the locker room.

Junior Jonelle Streed put on an offensive showcase with a career high 22 points, five rebounds and four assists. Abrahams finished with 16 points, and Nicole Persby followed with 14 points. Brittany Carper led the Mustangs with 20 points, six rebounds, two blocks and three steals. Carper would get little rest against the red-hot Huskies, as she played 37 minutes. Megan Cloud added 18 points.

Everything was falling for the Huskies as they shot 61 percent from beyond the arch (eight of nine in the first half) and 51.7 percent from the field.

"Everyone was on fire," said sophomore guard Andrea Shogren. "We communicated really well out there. We played great defense which really got our offense going."

SCSU turned the ball over 23 times but made up for it on the boards where they out rebounded Morningside 50-35.

South Dakota ( No. 2 NCC) would prove to be a tougher challenge on Saturday night.

The Coyotes were in control from the beginning. As they took a 4-2 lead, the Huskies found themselves trying to play catchup all night long.

The last time these two teams met, USD shooting guard, Krista Orsack, had 27 points including seven three-pointers. The Huskies kept the Coyote sharpshooter under control most of the night by only allowing her 12 points off of four three-pointers. This time it was Mandy Koupal's turn to give SCSU headaches. She had 31 points, a career high 16 rebounds, and four blocks.

"Everyone knows how good she is," Abrahams said. "She just went out there and did whatever she wanted to do."

For the second game in a row, all 11 Huskies saw playing time. Abrahams continued her hot shooting with 18 points (three of five three-pointers), but she was the only Husky in double digits.

The Huskies shot only 32.8 percent from the field and 33 percent from the three-point arc, while stumbling horribly in the second half shooting only three of 13 from the arch.

"We didn't play our game. We struggled on offense and kind of just put our heads down," Abrahams said. "We didn't get on the offensive boards so we didn't get any second chances."

The Huskies will also get no second chances at SDSU Tuesday night in the first round on the NCC tournament.

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Bobby Hart can be reached at: [email protected]

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