Women's Basketball | January 29, 2015

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Teams: Minot State vs. Wayne State College | Series: WSC leads 2-0
Date: Friday, Jan. 30, 2015 | Time: 6 p.m. | Site: Minot State Dome
Teams: Minot State vs. Augustana College | Series: Augie leads 3-1
Date: Saturday, Jan. 31, 2015 | Time: 4 p.m. | Site: Minot State Dome

THIS WEEK: Minot State finishes up a four-game home stand with a pair of NSIC games, taking on NSIC South Division foes Wayne State College and Augustana College Friday and Saturday starting at 6 and 4 p.m. respectively.

RECORDS: The Beavers come into the weekend at 9-11 overall and are 4-10 in the Northern Sun. Wayne State is atop the NSIC South Division with a stellar 17-3 overall record and an 11-3 NSIC record. Augustana College is 13-8 and 7-7 coming into the weekend.

COACHES CORNER: Minot State is coached by Sheila Green Gerding. In her 20th season at the helm of the Beaver women's basketball program, Green Gerding has amassed an impressive 343-233 overall record. Green Gerding is the Beavers all-time wins leader and has all 342 wins with the Beavers. She has qualified Minot State for six NAIA National Tournaments over her career while also coaching 12 All-Americans both at the NAIA and NCAA Division II levels. Chris Kielsmeier is already 161-43 in seven seasons at WSC and has put together a superb 340-87 overall record. Dave Krauth is one of the NCAA Division II leaders in wins, piling up 522 during his 26 seasons at Augie. He is 522-236 overall.

FOLLOW THE BEAVERS: The game is broadcast locally on KCJB 910-AM with Scott Kittell calling the play-by-play. Live audio can be accessed online at kcjb.com. MSU provides live video and live stats as well as links to the live audio at msubeavers.com. Friday's game Minot State Athletics also is active on Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, Instagram and Pinterest with all feeds accessible at msubeavers.com/stayconnected.

RANKINGS: Wayne State College checks in as tied for No. 23 in the latest Women's Basketball Coaches Association Division II Poll, the only one of the three teams to receive votes this week.

RECENT HISTORY: Minot State split a pair of home NSIC games, falling 72-60 against Minnesota Duluth Friday before rolling over St. Cloud State Saturday 81-64. The Beavers reversed a recent trend and shot the ball better on Saturday then the Beavers did on Friday. Alex Haley (So., G, Libertyville, Ill.) led MSU both nights, hitting for 19 Friday and 18 Saturday. MSU's Christina Boag (Sr., F, Tamworth, Australia) became just the sixth player in school history to reach 1,000 career points and 500 career rebounds in Saturday's win. Wayne State destroyed visiting Upper Iowa and Winona State in a pair of NSIC games this past weekend, allowing just 82 combined points. WSC rolled UIU 69-38 and bounced WSU 64-44. Ashton Yossi scored a team-high 13 Friday and Jordan Spencer led the Wildcats for the 11th time Saturday with 14 points. Augustana College used a huge rally Friday to also sweep WSU and UIU. The Vikings trailed by as many as 21 points before finishing off WSU. Shaunteva Ashley earned NSIC South Player of the Week honors with 27 points Friday and 18 more Saturday. Nicole Kerkhoff paced Augie with 17 total rebounds.

OVERALL SERIES: MSU trails both WSC and Augie in their short history. Wayne State holds a 2-0 lead, winning each of the past two seasons, while AC is 3-1 against MSU. The Beavers lone win, however, came at Minot last season, the Beavers first win over a top 25 team as the Vikings were No. 13 in the country before an 88-71 loss. Morgan Klose (Sr., G, Fairview, N.D.) finished with 20 points and was one of five MSU players in double figures in the win over the Vikings.

NOTING THE WILDCATS: Wayne State College leads the league in scoring margin with an impressive 22.7 plus point spread as they check in as the No. 2 scoring defense and offense in the conference… WSC is holding teams to just 54 points per game…  Jordan Spencer is one of the top post players in the conference, despite being just 5-foot-11. Spencer is averaging 15.5 points and 7.6 rebounds per game with 47 assists and 40 steals… The Wildcats are leading the NSIC in field goal percentage, 13 points higher than Minot State, hitting 46.7 percent from the field… A big part of that is 3-point shooting as WSC is the league leader, hitting 38.9 percent from the field on triples and has taken the second highest number of 3s in the league. WSC has hit 169 3s this season, while allowing just 28.4 percent to its opponents… Seven different Wildcat players have hit at least 10 3-pointers on the season, paced by Ashton Yossi's 41. Maggie Schulte and Millie Niggeling have hit better than 40 percent of their respective 3-point shots, hocking down a combined 62.

NOTING THE VIKINGS: Augustana College's Shaunteva Ashley has won five NSIC South Player of the Week honors as she is one of the top players in all of NCAA Division II. Ashley leads the conference in scoring at 21.1 points per game, assists at 5.2 per game and has a remarkable 2.3 assist-to-turnover ratio, also tops in the NSIC… The Vikings led the league in scoring average at 79.4, but have given up a 13th-best 71.3 points per game… The Vikings have liked the 3-pointer this season, shooting 518 of them this season, but they are just 14 th overall in 3-point field goal percentage at 29.3 percent… Logan O'Farrell and Sophie Kenney have helped the Vikings to the top steals average in the NSIC at 11.3 as a team. O'Farrell leads the league with 2.5 and Kenney is third at 2.1.

TOP 6 EVER AIN'T BAD: Over the past 40 years of Minot State women's basketball, there have been only six players who have reached the milestone of 1,000 points and 500 rebounds – two of them are Boags. Minot State's Christina Boag (Sr., F, Tamworth, Australia) joined sister Carly Boag – who graduated last season – as she reached 1,000 career points in Saturday's win against St. Cloud State. Boag now has 1,003 points and 588 rebounds. She would be just the sixth player in school history to reach 600 rebounds if she can pull down 12 more this season.

BAKER'S DOZEN: While Christina Boag (Sr., F, Tamworth, Australia) just reached 1,000 points, the club watch isn't done yet. MSU's senior Katie Hardy (F, Fairview, N.D.) is just 40 points from becoming the 13 th member in school history. Hardy's pace was slowed this season due to an injury, but she sits at 960 points in four seasons and has reached the 900-point, 400-rebound club that is still pretty exclusive.

HALEY SETTLING IN: MSU's Alex Haley (So., G, Libertyville, Ill.) started the season strong, but had a lull in scoring early in the conference season. That lull is long behind her as she paced the Beavers in scoring in both games last weekend and has upped her scoring average to 11.1 points per game. She has hit for double figures in two straight games, five of her last six and eight of the past 11 games after going four straight without finding double figures.

THE SAVANA SLASHER, PART 2: Savana Kingsbury (Jr., F, Omaha, Neb.) has reached her career-high in scoring twice in the past three games. She knocked down 5 of 6 shots from the field for 14 points in the win over SCSU Saturday and finished seven rebounds.

BY THE NUMBERS
6: Games where Minot State shot 50 percent or better. Including Saturday's 50.9 percent from the floor, the Beavers have hit at least half of their shots in three of their past seven games. MSU hit a season high 60.4 percent in a win over Bemidji State three weeks ago. The solid shooting has MSU second overall in field goal percentage in the NSIC.

8: Points and assists for Morgan Klose (Sr., G, Fairview, N.D.) Saturday. Klose had a solid all-round game with eight points, eight assists and two steals and finished the weekend with 13 points, 12 assists, six rebounds and three steals.

12: Offensive rebounds against St. Cloud State. Minot State pulled down double figures on the offensive glass for the 11th time this season.