Comets control second half to pull away from BU

NSAA Standings

MAYVILLE, N.D. -- Mayville State held the Bellevue University women's basketball team to just a 31 percent effort from the floor as the Comets claimed a 64-45 win over the Bruins on Friday evening in North Star Athletic Association play.

With the victory, MSU improves to 16-5 and 8-2 in NSAA play while BU slips to 11-14 on the year and 4-6 in conference action.

Asha Scott scored 10 of her 11 points in the first half to lead the Bruins. Taeha Pankey, Ashtyn Arnold, and Miranda Hennings each added five points in the loss.

Jordan Zrust scored 22 in the second half en route to a game-high 35 points to go along with six steals and five rebounds. Kylee Heurung joined her in double figures with 10.

Mayville State led 12-4 early before Bellevue rattled off a 9-1 run in just 1:18 with layups from Scott and Arnold, a floater by Delaney VanBlaricon, and a three-pointer by Arnold to tie the game at 13-all which is where the score stood after a quarter of play.

Following a slow start to the second quarter, Hennings gave the Bruins a 16-15 lead with a three from the top of the key that Jordan Zrust answered from the wing at the other end. A couple more backdoor layups from Zrust pushed the Comet lead to 22-16 with 4:56 to play in the first half. Trailing by five, BU scored the final four points of the half as Meleah Turner scored on a back cut and Scott scored through contact to cut the deficit to 26-25 at the break.

Scott had 10 points and six boards to lead the Bruins at the Break while Zrust led all scorers with 13 to go along with four boards.

Bellevue struck first in the third quarter as Laura Jurek made a patient move in the post to score on a scoop shot. Elexis Martinez ended a 7-2 scoring run from MSU's Zrust with her first field goal of the evening as the Bruins cut the lead to 33-31.

Back-to-back BU turnovers led to four easy points for the Comets who pushed the lead to 37-31, their largest since midway through the opening quarter. The lead stretched to as many as 14 on a 2-on-1 layup from Zrust who scored 15 of her game-high 35 in the third quarter as MSU led 49-35 after three.

Mayville held Bellevue to just one field goal in the opening four and a half minutes of the fourth quarter in extending their lead to 18 with five minutes to play.

Bellevue closes out their regular-season road schedule tomorrow at the Strode Center in Aberdeen, S.D. with a 3 p.m. tip-off against Presentation College.