MINOT, N.D. – Even down by 18 points in the first half, Minot State University's women's basketball team felt like they could still rally.

Afterall, the Beavers had pulled off one big comeback at the MSU Dome this season. MSU rallied to defeat Montana-Western in the nonconference portion of the season in a similar game.

“I think the Western game did help us,” said MSU head coach Sheila Green Gerding. “We felt we could win this game, even after getting down. That was the same feeling (against Western). It never felt like we were out of it even down 18.”

The Minot State University women's basketball team rallied from that deficit in the first half to fend off South Dakota Mines 75-66 in a key Dakota Athletic Conference women's basketball game Saturday at the MSU Dome.

“We talked at halftime about what we needed to do and to just keep doing it little by little,” Green Gerding said. “'Claw' is the right word. We felt we had things turned around (by halftime) and needed to keep after it little by little.”

The Beavers (9-5 DAC, 21-7 overall) cut the 18-point lead to eight on a 3-pointer by senior Kallie Erickson (G, Fordville, N.D.) just before the halftime buzzer, raising spirits heading into the locker room. MSU outscored the Hardrockers 39-22 in the second half. Erickson had one of her best games in the Beavers uniform as shot hit 6 of 10 3-pointers and 20 points overall.

“Kallie was very good for us. It has been kind of neat to watch lately, it seems like we have a different player every night,” Green Gerding said.

Erickson's 3 just before the half started a 22-5 run for the Beavers that ended in another triple by Erickson that gave the Beavers a 55-49 lead with just over 11 minutes to play and excited a crowd that had been waiting to explode.

“We talk a lot about being there for each other,” said Green Gerding. “At half, we talked about how the crowd was there for us tonight and we needed to be there for them. I thought it was a great crowd.”

The Beavers tied the school record for wins in a season, earning their fourth 21-win season in five years. MSU also won its 14th straight home game, improved to 7-0 in conference play at the Dome, won its sixth game in a row and for the ninth time in 10 games.

Mines (6-8, 12-16) scorched the nets early on as they knocked down 14 of 24 shots in the first half, and hit 7 of 12 3s to build the early lead.

“We had to switch to man and it worked for about six minutes,” said Green Gerding. “In our zone, they were getting whatever they wanted and whatever shot they wanted. We switched to man and got after them a little. They started to figure that out and we went to a straight 2-3 zone. Basically, we tried to keep everything in front of us because (Mines') driving was killing us.”

The Hardrockers got nearly all of its scoring from four players as Hillary Hawkins drained a game-high 22 points and pulled won seven rebounds. Tristan Burnett scored 19 points and added nine rebounds for the Hardrockers, while Ariel Granillo scored 12 and Jerika Ihnen finished with nine points and nine rebounds.

MSU turned Mines over 27 times in the game as Christina Boag (Fr., F, Tamworth, Australia) finished with four steals. The Beavers had 16 steals as a team.

Along with Erickson, MSU had four players in double figures and another who finished with nine points. Katie Hardy (Fr., F, Fairview, Mont.) scored 12 points and pulled down four rebounds, and Lauren Safranski (So., G, Burnsville, Minn.), Sacarra Molina (So., G, Hinsdale, Mont.) and Caroline Folven (Sr., C, Byron, Ill.) all finished with 10 points. Boag scored nine and added eight rebounds to pace the Beavers on the glass.

The two teams will face one another less than a week apart for the second straight season as Mines travels to Minot State for the first round of the DAC playoffs Wednesday at 7 p.m. Last season, Mines upset the Beavers at the Dome in the first round.