Box Score

MAYVILLE, ND – The Lady Comets returned home to the friendly confines of the Lewy Lee Fieldhouse to start their NSAA conference season against Presentation College this Friday. The Comets were recently ranked as the #16 team in the country and were coming off a win on Tuesday over UM-Morris, which extended their winning streak to three games.

The two teams kept it tight for the first few minutes, then some hot shooting opened things up for the Comets. Karleigh Weber hit two 3's to help lift the Comets to a 12-5 lead, followed by another bucket to go get the jump on them in the first 10 minutes of play. Joelle Ertl was contributing a couple 3's herself, hitting 2 of her own to make a 24-14 lead at the end of the first quarter for the Comets. 

Weber continued her streak of 3's with another one in the first minute of the 2nd quarter, however the Saints started a push of their own, going on a 13-8 run to close the gap to a five-point deficit to the Comets. Kylee Heurung came in and made a quick impact with a 3-point play and a 3-pointer soon after that to help crank the Comets' lead up to 11. Joelle Ertl also offered a little spark towards the end to lift the Comets to a 13-point lead, the score reading 42-29 in favor of the Comets at the half. 

The second half was a low scoring affair for the visiting Saints as they struggled to get their shots in and were hounded by the Comets defense throughout the half.  The Comets drained in another 30 points in the second half while only allowing the Saints to score twelve in all on the way to a commanding 72-41 victory to start 1-0 in the NSAA, going 8-1 overall. 

Coach Dennis Hutter felt it was a great effort all around by his team. "We shot the ball well in the first half. Karleigh really got us going early. I thought we defended very well all night. It was a good team win."

Overall leading scorer in the game was Joelle Ertl with 17 points on the night.  Following her was Karleigh Weber with 15, Andrea Skillingstad added ten, and Kylee Heurung with nine. The Saints' leading scorer was Macy Toelle with 15, followed by Allison Cox and Karly Sanchez with ten each. Leading in rebounds for the Comets were Naomi Torgerson and Andi Gayner, both with nine. Torgerson also had five assists on the night. As a team, the Comets won the battle of the boards with 49 to the Saints' 39 rebounds. 

Next action for the Comets will be Saturday afternoon at home, MSU takes on the University of Jamestown at 3:00 pm at the Lewy Lee Fieldhouse.