The University of Minnesota Crookston Golden Eagle Women’s basketball team used an 18-0 run to start the game and strong free-throw shooting in the fourth quarter to beat Mayville State (NAIA) 72-66 in a non-conference game played at Lysaker Gymnasium in Crookston.
Minnesota Crookston appeared headed for a lopsided win after a dominant first quarter. The Golden Eagles jumped out to an 18-0 lead with Mayville State failing to score until Kylee Herung (Soph., Brainerd) made a three-pointer for the Comets with 1:03 left in the first quarter. Abby Guidinger (Soph., Waukesha, WI) closed the first quarter with five-straight points for Minnesota Crookston giving the hosts a 23-3 lead after one quarter. “We got off to a good start, I thought we defended pretty well and got a few things going,” said UMC head coach Mike Roysland. “Mayville State’s got a really nice club so I was pleased with the start and we certainly needed all of it. I thought we were able to attack the rim and finish.”
Mayville State responded well to open the second quarter with the Comets with Claire Blascziek (Jr., Lakeville) knocking down a pair of three-pointers. To open a 10-0 scoring run pulling the visitors within 23-13 with 7:27 remaining in the first-half. Guidinger finally stopped the Comets’ run with a lay-up with 7:06 left in the second quarter. Caitlin Michaelis (Sr., Marshfield, WI) halted the Mayville State momentum with a lay-up and a foul leading to a made free-throw reestablishing a 12-point lead for UMC. Minnesota Crookston closed out the first half with four straight points by Michaelis giving the Golden Eagles a 38-27 lead at halftime. “(Mayville State) have the potential (to come back) because they shoot so many threes,” said Roysland. “They were able to knock down a couple of those and we had great opportunities, but we weren’t able to capitalize on it. We weren’t able to finish at the rim. They can light you up in a hurry, but again I was happy with how we responded in the third quarter again.”
A back and forth third quarter saw Mayville State trim their deficit down to seven before Kylie Post (Fr., Corcoran) and Isieoma Odor (R-Sr., Bloomington) scored on back-to-back possessions inside giving UMC a 42-31 lead with 7:51 left in the third quarter. With Mayville State trailing 49-41 with 4:02 left in the quarter both teams failed to score for nearly three minutes before Nicole Bunting (Jr., Red Wood Falls) made a lay-up for the comets, trimming the visitor’s deficit down to 49-43 until a Kylie Post lay-up closed out the quarter with Minnesota Crookston leading 51-43.
The Golden Eagles opened up a 57-45 lead with 6:55 remaining before Mayville State scored five-straight points to pull within 57-50 with 6:21 left to play. Caitlin Michaelis responded with five-straight points for Minnesota Crookston pressing the lead back up to twelve points with 5:10 remaining. With 2:01 left, the Comets trimmed the UMC lead down to 66-60 after a pair of free throws, but the Golden Eagles were able to close the game out from the free-throw line finishing the day shooting 16-19 to help close out the 72-66 win. “In the second half we missed way too many attempts at the rim where we really had a chance to open things up, but Mayville hung tough,” summarized Roysland. “They’re a scrappy bunch and they never gave up and they worked themselves right back into the game.”
The Golden Eagles improve to 4-0 and return to the court on Friday, November 23 when UMC travels to Bellingham, Washington to take on St. Martin’s University at 5:30 p.m. Mayville State falls to 2-3.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Mayville State | 3 | 24 | 16 | 23 | 66 |
| UMC | 23 | 15 | 13 | 21 | 72 |
| For UMC | Points | Rebounds | Assists/Steals |
| Caitlin Michaelis | 17 | 3 steals | |
| Isieoma Odor | 16 | 17 | 2 steals |
| Abby Guidinger | 13 | 5 | |
| Kylie Post | 10 | 8 | 4 assists/4 steals |
| Steph McWilliams | 5 | ||
| Julia Peplinski | 4 | ||
| Kylea Praska | 3 | 4 | |
| Bren Fox | 2 | ||
| Paige Weakley | 2 | 3 |
