SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (USF) — Led by career highs from Anna Brecht (22 points) and Hannah Jones (17 points) plus 20 points from Anna Goodhope, the University of Sioux Falls Women’s Basketball Team (4-0, 4-0 NSIC) swept the Winona State Warriors (0-3, 0-2 NSIC) with a 73-67 win in the Stewart Center on Sunday.
USF has moved the overall series to 10-9 in favor of Winona State, with their third consecutive win over Winona on Sunday afternoon. With the win, USF remained at the top of the leaderboard in the NSIC South Standings at 4-0.
In winning its fourth straight game, USF had to rally. The Warriors started the game off hot, going on a 10-0 run in the first five minutes of the first quarter. By the end of the first quarter, the Cougars trailed, 22-9. Early in the second quarter, WSU increased their advantage to 27-11 (7:25, 2nd quarter) before the Cougars rallied.
After shooting just 11.8 percent (2-of-17 from the field) in the first quarter, USF improved their shooting substantially and made 21-of-46 from the field for 45.6 percent. USF trailed just 36-31 by halftime and tied the game at 51 after three quarters. In the fourth quarter, USF hit 7-of-11 field goals for 63.6 percent and 6-of-8 free throws to outscore, WSU, 22-16, and record the victory.
For the second day in a row, the free throw line was again another major factor in the Cougar’s victory over WSU. As a team, USF hit 22-of-25 free throws for 88 percent. Brecht led USF by making 12-of-12. USF had a nine-point margin at the foul stripe as WSU made 13-of-15.
While free throw shooting proved key, so was USF’s defense which forced 14 turnovers, utilizing 11 steals, and recorded a 39-34 rebound advantage.
USF Head Women’s Basketball Coach Travis Traphagen, was proud of his team for fighting to the finish.
“Anytime you’re 2-of-20 from the field at the start, you should just be thankful you’re even in the basketball game. But, we battled back in the second quarter and were within striking distance,” he said. “We had a talk at halftime and made some adjustment. In the second half, I thought our ball movement, player movement, attention to detail, scouting, stuff like that improved,” said Traphagen, who won his 247th game at USF.
“All-in-all, I was proud of the kids,” said Traphagen. “Anytime you have a 20+ (points) game, like Brecht and Goodhope, you should be proud of yourself. And, I was happy to have Hannah Jones back on the floor, she did some big things for us tonight,” noted Traphagen.
In her fourth game for the Cougars, Brecht had another impressive 38 minutes, recording a career-high 22 points (fourth double-digit game) to go along with six rebounds. She now has two 20-point outings in four games this season..
Goodhope and Jones came off the bench to provide USF with a 41-24 advantage. Goodhope, who has now scored double digits in 27 career games for the Cougars, including her 3rd in a row this season, also grabbed eight boards and one steal. She hit 8-of-13 from the floor and made all three of her triples for 20 points. Over the past two games, Goodhope, who is averaging 13.6 points and six rebounds off the bench, was on fire this weekend by hitting 14-of-25 field goals (56 percent) and 6-of-9 for 67 percent from three-point range.
In her first game of the season, Jones had a career night. She hit 6-of-9 field goals and 5-of-7 free throws for 17 points. In addition, she had six rebounds, four assists and two steals in 30 minutes.
For the third time in four games, junior guard Dallie Hoskinson had double-digit rebounds with a game-high 13. She also had three of USF’s while Emily Petersen also had three steals.
Overall, USF was able to pick up a win despite being down 16 in the first half and shooting under 40 percent. The Cougars ended up 23-of-63 from the field for 36.5 percent which included 5-of-20 from three-point range for 25 percent. The Warriors, which had a career-high 30 points from Emma Fee, who led all scorers before fouling out, made 24-of-56 field goals for 42.9 percent and hit 6-of-24 threes for 25 percent.
(Dan Genzler, University of Sioux Falls, contributed this release.)
