Box Score

MAYVILLE, ND – The Comets returned home to the Lewy Lee Fieldhouse on Tuesday night to take on UM-Morris out of Morris, MN. The team also kicked off their Toys for Tickets campaign, in which attendees could donate a new toy for free admission. Plus, it was Faculty and Staff Appreciation Night. With a lot of things happening at home, the Comets were looking to satisfy the home crowd with another win. 

The Comets were dominant from the start and opened the game up with a 19-0 run, keeping the Cougars scoreless for the first 7:05 of play. The Cougars found a spurt of their own and went on an 11-4 run to finish out the first quarter, Comets leading 23-11. A big part of the Comets run came from causing 15 turnovers for the Cougars in first. The second quarter was a similar story, with the Comets keeping the pressure on and turning mistakes by the Cougars into a good stretch of points. Joelle Ertl was a key sparkplug for the Comets in that surge, scoring 12 of her first half total of 18 points. Mayville State went off the court at halftime with a commanding 49-20 lead.  

The second half began with the Cougars developing a groove of their own, but the Comets were able to keep their lead up despite being out-scored by four points in the third quarter. MSU was able to widen the gap again with Andi Gayner going on a six-point scoring run by herself, capped off by a three-pointer from Sydney Gangl. Gayner continued to score down low for the Comets in the 4th, finishing with 18 on the night. Andrea Skillingstad added more to the total, going on a six-point run of her own late in the game.  All in all, the Comets kept the pace going to win in the end, 89-66.  

Coach Dennis Hutter was pleased with how the Comets performed. "I thought the kids came out very focused tonight. Our full-court press release really dictated the tempo early in the game. It's a nice way to enter our Thanksgiving Break. 6-1 is where we wanted to be at this point. Now we have to keep getting better day in and day out."

Leading all scorers was Joelle Ertl with 21, followed by Gayner with 18, Skillingstad with ten, and Sydney Gangl and Karleigh Weber both adding nine. Ten Comets scored on the night.  MSU caused 33 turnovers on the night, 19 of which were steals, 6 of those by Weber. Leading in rebounds for the Comets was Skillingstad with seven. The Comets shot 43% overall from the floor, going 12-33 from behind the arc. 

Mayville State and Minnesota-Morris have a rematch one week from now at the Cougars' place in Morris, MN. The tipoff for the next week will be at 7:30 PM, though, as the women and men will be flipping game times next week.