Photo by Abbey Hoisington/SMSU Athletic Communications: Southwest Minnesota State University guard Peyton Blandin (right) dribbles the ball up the court during the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II tournament on Friday in Pittsburg, Kan. The seventh-seeded Mustangs defeated Concordia-St. Paul 77-64 to advance to the Central Region quarterfinals.

PITTSBURG, Kan. — In its first Division II national tournament game since 2002, the Southwest Minnesota State University womens basketball team came away with a win on Friday afternoon. The No. 7 Mustangs took the lead against second-seeded Concordia-St. Paul three minutes into the game and never trailed from there, claiming a 77-64 win to advance to the Central Region semifinals.

“I don’t know if we worry about those things [being the 7 seed taking on the 2], all year we’ve kind of been us,” SMSU head coach Webb said after the win. “The cool thing we talked about is with a full house, we have a chance every night. This team competes. We’ve played 31 games this year and they’ve competed all 31… There are times in practice they get frustrated with me a bit when we have to cut practice off because they’re competing so hard in practice that I don’t want them to get hurt.”

The go-ahead bucket came when Peyton Blandin knocked down a go-ahead layup and Nicole Maenke followed up with a 3-pointer to give the Mustangs a 4-point lead. After the Golden Bears called a timeout, Blandin scored on another layup to cap off an 8-0 run with an 8-2 Mustang lead.

Lindsey Becher ended Concordia’s field goal drought of over seven minutes with a layup with two minutes left to trim SMSU’s lead to 3 points, but a Blandin 3 brought SMSU’s lead back to 6 points and the Mustangs ended the first quarter with a 15-10 advantage.

Blandin had the hot hand early with 9 first-quarter points on 4 of 5 shooting while Becher and Lydia Haack each accounted for half of the Golden Bears’ 10 points in the frame.

“I think her confidence is really important. I think the cool part about her is she’ll just keep shooting that thing,” Webb said. “The thing she tells [Stoltzman] is just keep shooting, keep shooting. She’ll tell all her teammates to keep shooting… I think those are the things that you have to believe when you shoot that ball, that that ball’s going in. Otherwise, just don’t shoot it.”

While the two teams took the first quarter to adjust to the stage, they heated up in the second and Concordia trimmed SMSU’s lead down to 34-30 at halftime.

Bri Stoltzman, the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Player of the Year, took a while to heat up. She scored 3 first-half points and 5 through the game’s first 24 minutes.

Stoltzman found her rhythm in the third quarter, however, knocking down three consecutive midrange attempts from the elbow to bring SMSU’s lead to 49-41 with two-and-a-half minutes remaining in the game’s penultimate frame, and finished with a 19-point, 10-rebound double-double on 7 of 13 shooting.

“At practice, that’s kind of just where I try to get to,” Stoltzman said of the elbow jumpers. “Webb’s given me the confidence to get there. He tells me to get to my spot and I feel like that’s right where that is.”

Swanson led the Mustangs in scoring on the night with 24 points, shooting 7 of 18 from the field and 9 of 10 from the charity stripe. Blandin also contributed 18 points on 7 of 10 shooting while knocking down four of her six attempts from beyond the arc.

Swanson attributed her success at the free-throw line to keeping a clear head, and said that it’s a part of her game that she feels improves as the game goes on.

Concordia and SMSU had met once before this season in NSIC play, beating the Mustangs in Marshall 72-58 led by 18 points from Leah Dengerud and a 15-point, nine-rebound performance from Becher. The win helped the Golden Bears edge out SMSU by one game for the NSIC regular-season title. The Golden Bears went on to win the NSIC tournament as well to enter the Division II tournament on a 16-game win streak.

SMSU finished with a narrow 41-39 rebounding advantage in the game, but Concordia outscored SMSU 16-10 on second-chance points due to their 16-10 advantage on the offensive glass. Natalie Nielsen, the sophomore transfer out of South Dakota State who played a minute in last year’s Division I tournament, helped SMSU salvage the boards with a game-high 12 total rebounds to go along with 7 points.

After a competitive first half, the Mustangs pulled away in the third quarter by outscoring the Golden Bears 23-11. Concordia trimmed SMSU’s lead to a point on a Haack 3-pointer halfway through the quarter, but a Stoltzman jumper and a Blandin 3 brought the Mustangs lead up to 45-39.

Ashley Schuelke broke up the Mustang scoring run with a pair of free throws, but the Mustangs closed out the frame on a 10-0 run over the final three minutes. Stoltzman and Swanson each got a bucket to initiate the run, and a pair of free throws from Stoltzman, a Swanson and-1 and a Blandin 3 brought the Mustang advantage to 57-41 heading into the final quarter of play.

SMSU’s 16-point lead at the end of the third was their largest of the game, but Concordia never came back any closer than 7 points.

Concordia largely controlled the pace of play, limiting the Mustangs to 2 fast break points. Still, the Mustangs capitalized on the Golden Bears’ 12 turnovers for 21 points.

Nielsen led the Mustangs’ defensive efforts with a pair of steals and three blocks while Stoltzman added another three steals.

“She just continues to grow with confidence. The cool part is when she came in, the three seniors [Stoltzman, Blandin and Jones] just took her under their wing and kind of helped her and gave her confidence,” Webb said. “Sometimes it’s hard. In the first half, I don’t think they had a shot attempt. Sometimes if you’re playing good defense like that and rebounding like that and you don’t get a shot attempt, you can get frustrated. She just doesn’t do that.”

The Mustangs shot 43% from the field and knocked down eight of their 24 attempts from 3-point range, while Concordia shot 36% from the field and 6 of 19 from long range. The Golden Bears also attempted 10 free throws, converting eight of them, while SMSU went 19 of 22 from the charity stripe.

SMSU will now take on No. 3 Fort Hays State in the region semifinals today at 5 p.m. The Tigers defeated No. 6 Southern Nazarene in the region quarterfinals 81-72 behind 22 points from Talexa Weeter, 20 from Katie Wagner DeGarmo and 17 from Olivia Hollenbeck. Wagner DeGarmo also grabbed 16 rebounds and dished out eight assists in the win.

Fort Hays aggressively pressed in their win on Friday, but Webb said he felt like the Tigers’ lead complicated things for Southern Nazarene as they tried to break the press. He added that he feels like his team’s backcourt depth gives it the tools to get past it.

“It wasn’t your typical press. You’re up 10, you’re trying to figure out time, score and those things, but we have time, we’ll be ready,” Webb said.