Martin Schlegel

schlegelma@mnstate.edu

After jumping out to a 12-point lead, turnovers ultimately proved costly for the MSUM women’s basketball team.

The Dragons fell to the Sioux Falls Cougars 59-56 in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference women’s basketball quarterfinal before an attendance of 474 at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota on Sunday.

Tied at 8 in the first quarter, MSUM went on an a18-6 run. The Cougars answered back with a strong second quarter, lowering the Dragons’ lead to 34-32.

At the half, Drew Sannes led the Dragons with 12 points and Cassidy Thorson had seven points. The team as a whole was shooting 41 percent from the field and was 5 of 11 from beyond the arc.

Heading into the fourth quarter, MSUM held an 8-point lead. Mariah Szymanski, who finished with a game-high 26 points for Sioux Falls, scored the opening points of the quarter. From there the Dragons simply could not keep hold of the ball.

MSUM turned the ball over on four consecutive possessions. Jacky Volkert finally scored with 6:53 left in the game to give the Dragons its first points of the quarter, breaking a 4 minute 52 second scoring drought.

The Dragons committed four more turnovers, giving the team eight in the fourth quarter and 14 for the game. Volkert, who finished with 11 points, had an attempt to give the Dragons a lead and another one to send the game to overtime with under 10 seconds. Both shots were no good and the Cougars held on to win and stun the Dragons.

Volkert tallied three assists and broke the MSUM single-season record with 151. Rosalie Hayenga held the previous record when she recorded 149 assists in the 1993-1994 season.