Bruins stymie Comets in 67-54 road victory

MAYVILLE, N.D. -- Joy Beran recorded her fourth double-double of the season to lead three Bruins in double figures as the Bellevue University women's basketball team defeated Mayville State University 67-54 in Frontier Conference action on Friday evening.

The win snapped a modest two-game skid for the Bruins who improve to 9-11 overall and 5-10 in Frontier Conference play. Mayville State falls to 1-18 overall and remain winless in league play, falling to 0-15.

How It Happened:

Whitney Welk and Misti Zempel hit early treys as the host side jumped out to a 6-2 lead just over a minute into the game. Bellevue scored eight-straight points, capped by a banked-in three from Zakiyyah Muhammad to go in front, 10-6. Mayville State countered, out-scoring BU 8-2 over 3:27 to take the lead before joy Beran made a jumper to tie the game at 14-all after one.

After trading jabs in the first two minutes that saw Nevaeh Tormaschy knock down a jumper to give MSU a 19-17 lead, Bellevue rattled off 14-straight points over 5:33 of game time to seize control of the game. Tarryn Godsey's layup with 2:08 gave BU its biggest lead of the half at 31-19 as the Bruins carried a 33-27 advantage into halftime.

Bellevue wasted little time extending their lead early in the second half. Karoline Ellison kicked off an 8-0 scoring run with a layup and Dru Zoucha pushed the lead to 14 with a three-pointer to go up 41-27. The Bruins held Mayville State without a point for nearly four minutes as the Comets managed just 12 points in the third quarter including a layup by Welk ahead of the buzzer.

Twice in the fourth quarter Taylor Hill knocked down three-pointers to cut the deficit to eight but Bellevue had an answer each time. After her triple at the 6:29 mark, Bellevue scored eight-straight which included four from Beran and they grabbed their largest lead of the game, 64-48, on Muhammad's layup with 2:43 to play before finishing off the 13-point win.

Top Performers:

Bellevue University:

Joy Beran – 16 points (6-10 FG), 10 rebounds (4 offensive), 2 assists, 2 steals
Karoline Ellison – 11 points (5-8 FG), 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals
Zakiyyah Muhammad – 11 points (5-9 FG), 5 rebounds, 1 block
Emma Russell – 8 points (3-6 FG), 2-4 3-FG, 1 rebound, 2 steals
Jhanel Coleman – 5 points, 9 rebounds

Mayville State University:

Whitney Welk – 15 points (5-13 FG), 3-9 3-FG, 2 rebounds, 3 assists
Misti Zempel – 12 points (4-11 FG), 4-7 3-FG, 8 rebounds, 4 assists
Hannah Stark – 8 points (3-10 FG), 4 rebounds (3 offensive), 1 steal

Inside the Numbers:

For BU, it was their first win at Mayville since a 70-63 victory on Feb. 10, 2018 as they are now 2-9 all-time in the Lewy Lee Fieldhouse.

Bellevue out-shot the Comets, 48-35%, though MSU made 11 threes (46%) to BU's 7 (32%).

The Bruins won on the glass, 36-29 overall and held a narrow 11-10 edge in offensive boards though Mayville out-scored them 9-7 in second chance points.

Mayville turned the ball over 18 times to Bellevue 12 though the Comets were more efficient converting BU's turnovers into a 15-12 scoring edge in points off turnovers.

Up Next:

BU is back in action tomorrow afternoon with a 3 p.m. tip against Valley City State University at Memorial Auditorium on the campus of Concordia University-Moorhead in Moorhead, Minn. as VCSU's home arena is undergoing repairs.