The Mayville State Women's Basketball team had another exhibition game on the schedule on Saturday afternoon in nearby Crookston, MN to take on the University of Minnesota-Crookston's Golden Eagles. It was the second straight exhibition game against an NCAA Division II school this week, giving the Comets quite an early test with their schedule. Although they outscored the Golden Eagles in the last three quarters by 14 points, it was a slow start in the first quarter that kept the Comets in comeback mode all game long as they fell 72-66 in the end to UMC.

It didn't start quite the way the Comets wanted it to in the first quarter, as UMC came out on a 12-0 run in the first 7 minutes of the game. 5 turnovers for MSU in that same time frame didn't help matters any.  UMC continued to work the ball well and increased the lead to 18 until Kylee Heurung got the Comets on the board with a three with 1:06 to go in the quarter.  UMC would score 5 more points in that final minute to take a 20 point lead that left the Comets quite a hole to get out of. 

The second quarter started on a much better note for the Comets, as Claire Blascziek started the comeback effort with authority. She scored 8 of the Comets' 10 points in the first 2 and half minutes of the quarter, connecting on two three's in a row in that effort. It helped close the 20 point gap to 10 before Kylee Heurung would contribute another three and close the lead down to 9 after another UMC bucket. The Comets only allowed the Golden Eagles to score 7 points in the first 5:14 of the second quarter, closing the gap to 7 after a five point spurt coming from Joelle Ertl. Blascziek continued to add to the Comets' 24 point scoring effort in the quarter, finishing with 12 at the half.  The offensive surge pushed the Comets into a much different path than they were on in the first quarter, this time only being down 38-27 at the break.  

The Comets were able to outscore UMC in each of the last two quarters, but it just wasn't enough to come close to a tie near the end.  Mayville State scored 16 to UMC's 13 in the third quarter, which included a nice string of points coming from Nicole Bunting on three straight field goals for 7 points total in the quarter. They would knock the deficit down to 10 points going into the final ten minutes of action. MSU would get as close as 6 points after Kylee Heurung connected on two back to back three's to make it 58 to 64 with 3:14 to go in the game. From there, it would be a battle at the free throw lines with UMC getting 6 of their last 8 points from the charity stripe and MSU getting 4 free throws in, plus 2 more buckets on short range shots from Joelle Ertl and Claire Blascziek. It was a little too late for the Comets to narrow it down further, as UMC escaped with the win, 72 to 66. 

Coach Hutter was happy with how the team battled back after such a deficit. "We obviously did not get off to a good start getting down 23-3. But, I thought the kids battled back hard the last three quarters outscoring Crookston by 14 points. I thought we defended very well after the first quarter. Andrea Skillingstad defended as well as I have seen her do this season, guarding Isieoma Odor from UMC. Claire Blascziek really got us going with our scoring in the second quarter. We have been so close in all three of these exhibition games against higher level competition. I hope it will pay off over the next couple of weeks as we enter conference play soon."

Kylee Heurung was a co-leader in points with 17 total, while UMC's Caitlin Michaelis had the same. Heurung went 5-8 from three-point land, 5-9 from the field overall and 2-2 on free throws. Claire Blascziek was right behind them at 16 points, while Joelle Ertl had 11, and 9 points each from Cyan Hale and Nicole Bunting. Andrea Skillingstad had a solid defensive game with 7 rebounds, 3 blocks and 2 steals for the afternoon. Joelle Ertl led the team with 5 steals for half of the team's total of 10 in the game. The Comets were outrebounded 47 to 37, while committing 17 turnovers. Those 17 turnovers led to 17 points for UMC, in which the Golden Eagles also had an edge in second-chance points, out-scoring the Comets 14 to 3 in that category. 

The Comets stay at 2-2 overall, and head into their next matchup on the road against the University of Minnesota-Morris down at Morris, MN on Tuesday, November 20th. Game time for that one will be at 5:30 p.m.