St. Cloud State women use quick start, Kilboten's big day to win home opener
ST. CLOUD — The St. Cloud State women's basketball team got off to a red-hot start on Friday against Northern Michigan, making seven of their first nine shots to lead 16-4 by the first media timeout before easily securing a nonconference 53-35 win.
It was their first game of the year at Halenbeck Hall.
Nikki Kilboten scored 11 of her 20 points in the second quarter, leading the Huskies in scoring for the second-straight game while also grabbing a team-high seven rebounds. She scored more points in the first half (17) than the entire Northern Michigan team (16).
While the senior post only had 10 combined points in the first two games of the season, she produced 24 points and 12 rebounds on Tuesday in an upset of Minnesota-Duluth, which was ranked No. 15 in the nation before the season. She also swatted seven shots in the narrow season-opening loss to No. 4-ranked Fort Hays State.
Kilboten was nearly unstoppable in the first half on Friday, dropping 17 of her 20 points before finishing on nine-of-13 shooting from the field. She scored at the rim, finished on post-ups and hit multiple jumpers from beyond the free throw line when defenders gave her space.
"She was off to a slow start offensively when we were down in our tournament, but she was tremendous defensively," St. Cloud State head coach Lori Fish said. "She was a little banged up down there, but she still did a lot of good things for us."
"I feel like she's really getting into rhythm, and it's just another dimension (for us) because we think when we play the game inside-out we're more effective," Fish continued. "She's gonna draw attention and it leads to other people getting open."
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St. Cloud State had a 38-16 lead at halftime, making 50% of their shots while holding Northern Michigan to 26% shooting.
The Huskies never trailed, leading by as much as 21-4 after a three-pointer from freshman Bridget Froehlke. SCSU was three-of-five beyond the arc in the first quarter before missing their final 12 three-pointers.
SCSU was outscored 19-15 in the second half, focusing more on getting different looks out of matchups and testing out their rotation.
The Huskies seem to have a clear 10-player rotation after nonconference play, which could be key after playing a condensed season last year with only a seven or eight-player rotation.
"I feel like we're pretty deep ... it's gonna be huge, especially down the stretch so we don't wear people out," Fish said. "We've got to worry about injury, foul trouble, all of those things. The more minutes we can get our bench, it's gonna help us."
The Huskies have already knocked off the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference's preseason favorite on the road, setting themselves up well for the grind of conference play.
SCSU is now 3-1 overall and will be back in action on Thursday at Minnesota-Crookston, beginning a stretch of 21-consecutive games against NSIC opponents.
Zach Dwyer is a sports reporter and photographer for the St. Cloud Times. Reach him at 320-406-5660 or zdwyer@stcloudtimes.com. Follow him on Twitter @sctimeszach.
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This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: SCSU uses quick start, Kilboten's big day to win home opener
