MAYVILLE, ND – The 21^st-ranked team in the nation took to the court Tuesday night, as the #21 Mayville State University Comets hosted the Trinity Bible College Lions in their final non-conference tune-up before the brunt of the conference schedule begins later this week. A strong defensive performance led to Mayville State walking away with a 92-38 victory at the Lewy Lee Fieldhouse.
 
Mayville State's Taylor Skjordal started the scoring just over a minute in, as she took advantage of Haley Anderson's offensive rebound off a three-point miss by Nicole Bunting, scoring a three-pointer of her own. The Lions' Stacia West countered nine seconds later with a three, and things were tied quickly in the first minutes of the contest.
 
Jena Sidle's free-throw gave Trinity their first lead of the game, but it was short lived, as 17 seconds elapsed before Jordan Zrust's hot hand continued the long-range scoring, pulling Mayville ahead 6-4. The three-pointer by Zrust made it back-to-back threes to open the contest.
 
The three-point onslaught continued, as Bunting then redeemed herself from early in the contest, converting Zrust's steal into three more points, giving Mayville State a 9-4 lead just over half way into the first quarter. The offense continued as Kylee Heurung picked up a steal-and-score, followed by another pair of three-pointers—one by Zrust and the other by Heurung, giving Mayville State a 13-point lead with 3:28 to go in the opening quarter.
 
West went on a run of her own for Trinity, scoring six straight points, cutting the lead to seven points with just over 1:30 to go in the quarter. Mayville State, however, answered and finished the quarter on an 8-2 run, behind three-pointers by Zrust and Cyan Hale.
 
The second quarter began where the first quarter ended.
 
Back-to-back-to-back-to-back three pointers, by Heurung, Anderson, and two by Bunting, overpowered the offense from the Lions, and Mayville State took a 37-18 lead with less than four minutes gone in the second quarter.
 
A pair of Claire Blascziek free-throws pushed the lead to 20, and the Comets continued to pour in the baskets. She also nailed a three-pointer with just over two minutes left. In all, Blascziek's game-leading 12 points pushed her over the 1,000 point mark for her career. Five of the 12 points came via the free-throw line.
 
Heurung finished the first half scoring the final five points.
 
With the game well in hand, the Comets bench saw plenty of action in the second half—and they held down strong defensively. Each player who saw the floor registered at least one shot attempt.
 
Mayville State was led in scoring by Heurung's 18 points, including shooting seven-of-10 from the field. Three other Comets were in double figures—Zrust finished with 13, Blascziek with 12 and Bunting with 11.
 
"I thought we shot the ball well tonight," Comets head coach Dennis Hutter said. "I was really happy to see that happen."
 
The Comets have closed the non-conference portion of the schedule out and will focus on the conference season.
 
"It was a good win for the team," Hutter said. "It was a good way to end our non-conference portion of our schedule."
 
The Comets will open the conference schedule with Waldorf on Friday and Viterbo on Saturday.