Paxton Ritchey-CSC Sports Information
DENVER – Chadron State women’s basketball broke through for its first road win of the season, defeating MSU Denver 60-55 in a Thursday evening game at the Auraria Events Center.
Ashayla Powers scored 18 points with seven rebounds, Megan Counts added 16 points and Kylie Krise finished a point away from a double-double with nine points and 10 rebounds to lead Chadron State to victory.
The win bumps the Eagles up to 5-16 overall and 4-11 in RMAC play. The Eagles improved to 1-7 on the road this season and won on the road against MSU Denver for the second consecutive year. The Roadrunners dropped to 6-17 and 5-10 in the RMAC with the loss.
The Eagles crucially won the rebounding battle (42-34) and the turnover battle (committing 16 and forcing 17) in Thursday’s game. Chadron State managed to win despite the Roadrunners outshooting CSC from the field (35.5 percent to 34.6 percent) and from three-point range (21.1 percent to 14.3 percent).
Powers made 6 of 9 shots from the floor and consistently got to the free-throw line, sinking 6 of 11 attempts. The rest of the Eagles were a combined 15-18 from the stripe. Powers nearly outpaced the entire MSU Denver team from the line, as the hosts had just 12 free-throw attempts overall, making seven.
Counts shot over 50 percent from the field, making 6 of 13 attempts, and added five rebounds, two blocks and a steal. She was joined in the starting frontcourt by Arvada, Colorado freshman Malorie Byrne, who made her first collegiate start a game after scoring a career-high nine points against CSU Pueblo. Byrne finished with three points, two assists and two rebounds in 19 minutes on Thursday.
The teams started out even, with five ties in the first quarter alone, but Chadron State emerged from the first 10 minutes with a three-point, 18-15 lead. The game continued to see-saw back-and-forth in the first half, with neither team leading by more than three points for the entire second quarter with Chadron up 28-27 at the half.
Out of the locker room, the Eagles received two Megan Counts layups plus two Kyra Tanabe free throws before a three-point play on a putback by Powers gave CSC its largest lead at 37-28. MSU Denver chipped away, however, using an 8-1 run to pull within a point with 1:25 to play in the third quarter and eventually taking the lead 44-43 at the end of the period.
The teams continued to wrestle the lead back and forth, with a total of 10 lead changes and nine ties throughout the contest. Powers proved clutch in the fourth quarter, as the veteran forward scored eight points in the fourth, including a 4-for-4 stretch at the line.
Powers scored 8 of 10 CSC points between eight-and-a-half and two-and-a-half minutes remaining in the game, turning a 47-46 MSU Denver lead into a 55-48 Eagles cushion that the visitors were able to see out.
Chadron State will continue its road trip in Golden, Colorado on Saturday night when the Eagles take on Colorado School of Mines (9-14, 7-8 RMAC) at 3 p.m.