SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- The Minnesota West women's basketball team had a slow start Thursday night.
Facing the University of Sioux Falls junior varsity, the Lady Jays (2-4) got in an early hole and never recovered in a 102-76 loss.
"We struggled all night," MW head coach Mike Fury said. "It was just a tough night."
USF jumped out to a 40-18 lead early in the first half. But MW made a nice comeback before the break.
"We had a nice spurt before halftime to be down by 10 at half," Fury said. "But we came out and didn't score for about three minutes and they went on a nine-point run."
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Trailing 53-43 at the break, the Lady Jays struggled and were outscored 49-33 in the second half.
"They shot extremely well," Fury said. "They had 15 3s. We were slow getting out on shots and they shot a good percentage."
Alyssa Smith had a team-high 24 points for MW.
Sam Lynn added 11, while Brooke Kramer scored 10 points.
MW will host Buena Vista JV on Monday night.
MW 43 33 -- 76
USF JV 53 49 -- 102
MW (3FG-2FT-FT-TP) Pavelko 1-1-1-6, Rients 1-2-0-7, Kramer 2-2-0-10, Smith 0-11-2-24, Lynn 1-4-0-11, Hadler 0-2-0-4, Christensen 0-4-1-9, Donkersloot 0-1-2-4, Skorepa 0-0-1-1. Totals 5-27-7-76.
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USF JV (3FG-2FG-FT-TP) Olson 1-2-0-7, Habitson 7-0-2-23, Hofer 3-4-8-25, Johnson 4-3-3-21, Simonerh 0-4-2-10, Senske 0-3-2-8, Hoff 0-2-4-8. Totals 15-18-21-102.
Men USF JV 72, MW 64
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- The Minnesota West men struggled against the zone in the first half of Thursday night's men's college basketball game.
But that changed after halftime.
The Bluejays picked up their play on both ends of the court, but the USF junior varsity team was too much in an eight-point loss.
"They played a 1-2-2 zone the whole night and we struggled in the first half making some shots," MW head coach Justin Heckenlaible said. "In the second half, we started making a few 3s and we picked up our pressure and made some plays in the defensive end. I think we had it down to four with like a minute to go. We missed a couple of shots and they broke our pressure and we had to foul."
MW (2-4) trailed 39-26 at halftime, but outscored the cougars by five points in the second half.
"Our second-half effort was much, much better," Heckenlaible said. "We had some guys figure some things out and against a good zone like they were running, you have to make some outside shots. We did that in the second half and we did some good things defensively in the full court."
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Cory Lesnar scored a game-high 22 points for MW, while Anthony Tomscha added 15.
Monte Metz (11 points) and Dennis Bolton (10) each scored in double figures.
The Bluejays will host Dordt junior varsity on Monday night.
MW 26 38 -- 64
USF JV 39 33 -- 72
MW (3FG-2FG-FT-TP) Bolton 2-2-0-10, Metz 1-3-2-11, Tomscha 3-2-0-15, Lesnar 0-7-6-22, Cloak 0-2-0-4, Jarmer 0-0-2-2. Totals 6-17-10-64.
USF JV (3FG-2FG-FT-TP) Weah 0-5-1-11, Pronk 0-1-0-2, Nielson 2-1-2-10, Smith 2-4-7-21, Senceroy 1-2-1-8, Coughlin 0-2-0-4, Hughes 1-3-3-12, Knolley 0-2-0-4. Totals 6-20-14-72.
