Box Score MINOT, N.D. – Oh, the advantage of having twin, 6-foot-2 sisters patrolling the paint.

Minot State University sophomore forwards Carly Boag (Tamworth, Australia) and Christina Boag (Tamworth, Australia) each blocked a shot and Christina grabbed a key rebound with less than 10 seconds to play and the Beavers clinging to a one-point lead.

And, adding to the drama, Minot State University's head coach Sheila Green Gerding's 300th career win was hanging in the balance.
The blocks help preserve No. 300 as Minot State rallied late to defeat South Dakota Mines 70-67 in nonconference NCAA Division II women's basketball in front of 1,923 fans Friday at the MSU Dome.

“Well, it was pretty special to get No. 300 at home in front of a great crowd,” said Green Gerding, who is coaching in her 17th year at Minot State. “But I still think that all that number says is I've been here a long time and that I had some really great players over the years.”

It looked for much of the middle portion of the game that No. 300 would have to wait as South Dakota Mines matched Minot State shot for shot, keeping a lead that fluctuated from three points to as high as eight in the second half.

“They are a good offensive team and we had to switch defenses a number of times. I thought our man-to-man was good in the second half, but they made shots,” Green Gerding said. “We finally got a stop (the Boags' block party).”

MSU (9-7 overall) started strong and ended strong. The Beavers jumped out to a 9-0 lead early in the second half and ended the game on a 15-4 burst. The key basket in the final run was a 3-pointer from the right wing by senior April Nakatani (G, Sacramento, Calif.) giving MSU a 68-65 advantage with a minute remaining in the game. It was the first lead of the second half for Minot State.

“It felt like a conference atmosphere in here tonight. Give our kids credit, they fought back and made some plays down the stretch,” Green Gerding said. “There was a lot of emotion down the stretch in this one.”

South Dakota Mines (7-7), former Dakota Athletic Conference team along with MSU and a team that is also in transition to NCAA Division II, got 13 points point and five rebounds from Katie Strandholm. Shalane Hampp added 11 points and three assists while hitting three 3-pointers. Ariel Granillo added nine points, four steals and three assists in the loss.

Carly Boag led all scorers with 18 points and added eight rebounds, four assists, three steals and two blocks. Katie Hardy (So., F, Fairview, N.D.) knocked down 14 on 6-of-8 shooting from the floor and Morgan Klose (Fr., G, Fairview, N.D.) added 10 points and four assists. Nakatani ended the game with nine points and three assists for the Beavers.

MSU will play host to another former DAC foe and fellow transitioning team in Black Hills State Saturday starting at 4 p.m.