Gehloff’s career-high elevates SMSU women over Vikings

MARSHALL, Minn. (SMSU) – The Southwest Minnesota State women’s basketball team earned a resilient 93-85 victory over Augustana in the first round of the NSIC Tournament on Wednesday night inside the R/A Facility.

The Mustangs advance to the quarterfinals of the NSIC Tournament for the third consecutive season and play the No. 4 seed, Northern State, inside the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D., with tip-off scheduled for 4:30 p.m.

SMSU, now 18-11 overall, was led by Madison Gehloff with a career-high 35 points on 13 of 17 shooting with three 3-pointers and 10 rebounds. It is the first career double-double for the senior. Bri Stoltzman scored 19 points on 6 of 15 shooting with seven makes at the foul line and nine rebounds. Sam Wall chipped in 17 points as well, while adding two steals and four rebounds.

The Mustangs finished the game shooting 50 percent (33 of 67) from the field including 52 percent from deep (11 of 21).

Augustana, finishing 7-20 overall on the year, was led by Michaela Jewett’s 21 points with 11 rebounds. AU closed the night shooting 44 percent (33 of 75) from the field, including 3 of 18 on 3-pointers.

Augustana scored 8 of 12 points to start the game and held an eight-point lead with just under seven minutes left in the first. The Mustangs would shoot 66 percent in the next five minutes while limiting AU to 44 percent shooting to settle the score at 20-17 in favor of the Mustangs with 1:48 to go in the first quarter of play. The Vikings strung together layups and free throws to close the quarter on a 9-5 run, settling the score at 26-25 after one.

The Mustangs outpaced the Vikings 16-8 in the second quarter until the final three minutes of play. Down seven points with 3:10 to play, AU garnered a 6-2 run to close the half down 43-40.

Both teams were successful in scoring to open the second half. Peyton Blandin drilled a 3-pointer and AU made a pair of layups to push the score to 46-45 in favor of the Mustangs with just over eight minutes of play left in the third quarter. The teams continued to trade points down the stretch of the third, with the Mustangs using six different scorers to keep afloat.

Sam Wall got SMSU started with back-to-back 3-pointers to put the Mustangs up nine with just over eight minutes left in the game. The action fell quiet in the following two minutes, with SMSU eventually picking up momentum after a pair of free throws for Madison Gehloff . Bri Stoltzman scored her 1,000th career point shortly after with a four-foot jumper at 5:07. The Vikings made several attempts to come back in the remaining minutes, however, the Mustangs answered every point scored by AU to close the game out down the stretch.

UP NEXT

SMSU is back in action on Sunday, taking on No. 4 seeded Northern State in the NSIC Tournament quarterfinals at 4:30 p.m., inside the Sanford Pentagon.

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