Nov. 17—BEMIDJI — Bemidji State women’s basketball head coach Chelsea Stoltenberg didn’t like what she was seeing in the first quarter against Minnesota Morris Monday night.
Despite their three-point lead by quarter’s end, mental mistakes were abundant for the Beavers, especially on defense.
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“We didn’t have that edge,” Stoltenberg put bluntly. “They were scoring off our turnovers, they were scoring off second-chance points and we were putting them on the foul line. And that’s the three things that killed us all last year.”
Stoltenberg challenged her team to tighten up on defense. She got her wish and then some.
The Beavers went on a 23-0 run to begin the second quarter, not allowing the Cougars to score until the halfway point of the frame.
“Once one shot fell and we were picking up on defense and getting touches on the ball, it was just electric,” junior Tieryn Plasch said. “(It was) contagious, and everyone had a bunch of energy to them.”
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BSU ended the quarter outsourcing UMM 34-8, putting the game well out of reach in the Beavers’ 85-53 victory. It’s Bemidji State’s first regular-season home win of the season.
“We did a good job of really setting the tone and just showing people what the Beavers are going to look like this year,” Plasch said. “Because I feel like in the past, even when we played (Minnesota Morris), we didn’t really show what we could do. So I’m really excited to prove people wrong this year.”
Plasch was BSU’s highest scorer, going 6-for-11 from the field with 16 points, five rebounds and five assists.
She also went 3-for-7 from 3-point land, adding to an eye-popping total of 18 3-pointers the BSU offense scored on Monday night, a program record. As a team, BSU shot 45% from beyond the arc.
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Triples weren’t the Beavers’ focus going into the game. But once they saw Minnesota Morris’ zone defense, they countered it by doing what they do best: shooting.
“Typically, when you see a zone, it’s one of two things: they either can’t keep you in front, so they’re going to pack it in, and you’ve got to shoot them out of it,” Stoltenberg said. “We have great shooters, so we were just going to shoot them out of it.
“It’s just the right shots that we wanted to make sure we were taking. And I thought, for the most part, the 3s we took were pretty good shots inside-out and shifting the defense.”
Plasch added: “We have a lot of shooters on the team. So we knew if you’re open, shoot it. No 3’s a bad 3.”
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Plasch, Gabrielle Fineday, MaCee Linow and Sam Veto each made three triples, all tied for the team high. Minnesota Morris as a team shot only four 3-pointers.
Despite the strong second quarter and the success from beyond the arc, the Beavers — with two exhibitions and two regular-season games under their belt — still haven’t played a full 40 minutes in Stoltenberg’s eyes.
She wasn’t too thrilled about Bemidji State’s performance in the third quarter, when they got outscored 19-16. She also didn’t like the 18 fouls and turnovers the Beavers committed in each category, knowing sloppy play can cost them in future games if they don’t clean things up.
“It’s just those identity things, right?” Stoltenberg said. “We foul too much. We turn it over too much. We don’t rebound good enough on the defensive glass. So those things in combination is (what) we’ll focus on.”
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They’ll have eight days to prepare for the NSIC opener on the road against Minnesota Duluth on Nov. 25. Later that week, BSU heads to Tampa, Florida, to participate in the Tampa Thanksgiving Classic.
“They’re excited; they’re ready,” Stoltenberg said. “But we have a lot of work to get cleaned up. … We have three in a row next week on the road, out of state. It’ll be a difficult little run. So it’ll be a great test of who we are and where we’re at.”
Bemidji State 85, Minnesota Morris 53
UMM 15 8 19 11 — 53
BSU 18 34 16 17 — 85
Minnesota Morris — Grove 17, Salazar 7, Mortenson 6, Stark 5, Perry 4, Ver Steeg 4, Myers 4, Klarenbeek 3, Mcllonie 3. Totals: 20-54 FGs, 4-10 3-pt. FGs, 9-15 FTs.
Bemidji State — Plasch 16, Syverson 10, Linow 10, Eppinga 9, Caron 9, Veto 9, Fineday 9, Heyer 4, Bolte 4, Liddie 3, Weiler 2. Totals: 29-68 FGs, 18-40 3-pt. FGs, 9-13 FTs.
