BEMIDJI, MINN – The Mayville State women's basketball team held the Bemidji State Beavers to just 10 points in the fourth quarter, but it wasn't enough as the Beavers defeated Mayville State 76-60 in exhibition action on Friday night at the BSU Gymnasium on the campus of Bemidji State University. The matchup was the first between the Comets and Beavers, according to data available as far back as the 2011 season.
 
"I thought that the team played with great effort tonight," assistant coach Joelle Ertl said. "There were stretches where we had some untimely turnovers and we could have defended a bit better I thought."
 
After an unfortunate start saw the Comets behind before the tipoff, due to a technical foul assessed, Claire Blascziek made quick work of the Beavers, nailing a three-pointer on a pass from Kylee Heurung with only 10 seconds gone in the first quarter. The Comets held the lead until a free throw by Bemidji State's Rachael Heittola tied the game with 6:19 left in the first quarter. Heittola answered less than 30 seconds later with a layup of her own, giving Bemidji State a two-point advantage.
 
"It's always nice to play these upper level teams to give us an opportunity to really gauge where we are at right now in the season," Ertl said. "There are definitely some positives we can take from the game as well as some things we can take away that we have to work on.
 
Taylor Reilly tied the game at 11-11 with a pair of free throws with 4:46 left.
 
Blascziek made quick work of the Beavers again in the second quarter, nailing a second three-pointer, this time 11 seconds on a pass from Taylor Skjordal, pulling the Comets to within one point. Cyan Hale's jumper with 9:14 to go in the first half gave the Comets the one-point advantage.
 
With 6:22 to go in the half, Blascziek nailed another three-pointer, making it 30-27 Comets.

"Our offense came out strong in the first quarter and a half, but we couldn't keep it going at that level," Ertl said.
 
Trinity Myer eventually erased that lead, giving the Beavers the one-point advantage with 3:54 left in the half.
 
Taylor Reilly eventually fought back and re-tied the game at 34-34 with 2:56 left in the half, a tie that only held for 30 seconds before Coley Rezabek put the Beavers back in the lead 37-34 with a layup and a free throw on two separate trips down the floor. Mayville State was held scoreless for the nearly final three minutes of the first half.
 
The third quarter was all Bemidji State to begin, as Myer and Sydney Zerr teamed up to put Bemidji ahead 47-34, before Nicole Bunting's layup made it 47-36 with 7:53 to go in the third.
 
Bemidji State began pulling away with a layup by Brooklyn Bachmann with 4:44 to go in the third, putting the Beavers in the driver's seat 55-38. Three straight points by Heurung, however, cut the lead to 14 points with 4:16 to go in the third. Bunting and Heurung each made a successful layup to end the Comet scoring in the third quarter, and Myer closed the third quarter scoring altogether, giving Bemidji State a 66-47 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
 
Bunting started the fourth quarter just as fast as Blascziek started the second quarter, as she nailed a layup just five seconds in, pulling the Comets to within a 66-49 deficit.
 
Blascziek had five straight points in the span of 50 seconds, making it 69-51 with 9:01 to go in the game. Claire Wolhowe stopped that streak with a three-pointer, extending the lead back to 72-51. In fact, nine of Mayville State's final 11 points were scored by Blascziek.
 
Mayville State held the Beavers scoreless for the final 6:16 of the basketball game.
 
Blascziek led the Comets with 22 points, while Bunting added in 13 points. Blascziek went four-of-seven from behind the three-point line.

The Comets will host the University of Minnesota-Morris on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at the Lewy Lee Fieldhouse in Mayville.