MINOT, N.D. – Minot State's defense led to an offensive explosion.

The Beavers limited St. Cloud State to just eight first-half field goals and allowed just 7 of 25 shooting on 3s, turning that into 81 points with a solid transition game, winning 81-64 in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference women's basketball in front of 1,013 fans at the Minot State Dome.

"We executed – we made some plays on offense, we hit our free throws which is something we've been struggling with," said MSU head coach Sheila Green Gerding. "I thought we really improved on them this weekend. And then defensively I thought we were pretty solid all night. We gave up a lot on the boards but I thought they pounded the boards really hard. It's harder to box out out of a zone."

MSU (9-11 overall, 4-10 NSIC) generated 21 SCSU turnovers and turned those into 25 points. Many of those came on fast break hoops by Christina Boag (Sr., F, Tamworth, Australia). Boag scored 15 points in the game, going over 1,000 career points as a Beaver. She became the 12th player to reach the milestone and became just the sixth MSU player with at least 1,000 career points and 500 career rebounds.

"Chris is a great player," Green Gerding said. "She has the ability to post up for us. She can play outside. Sometimes we joke about her playing point guard because sometimes she brings the ball up after a rebound. She's a really versatile player and probably her best forte most of the time is defense. She just does a lot of things really well."

But MSU was not just one player Saturday. The Beavers had six players with at least seven points and had four in double figures. The Beavers played their most complete game in conference at home, shooting 50.9 percent from the floor, hit 4 of 9 3-pointers and went 19 for 25 from the free-throw line.

"I didn't really need to say much. They were pretty excited," said Green Gerding. "It was really a good team win for us. Just everybody making different plays at different times."

Carley Jeffery was the lone player for SCSU (11-7, 7-7) in double figures, scoring 11. Chelsea Nooker added nine points and three assists in the loss.

Alex Haley (So., G, Libertyville, Ill.) led Minot state with 18 points, four rebounds and two assists. Savana Kingsbury (Jr., F, Omaha, Neb.) had 14 points and seven boards, while Katie Hardy (Sr., F, Fairview, N.D.) reached double figures with 11 points.

Morgan Klose (Sr., G, Fairview, N.D.) hit two 3-pointers for eight points, added eight assists and two steals in the win for the Beavers.

Minot State is back at the Dome next week with a pair of NSIC games starting with Wayne State College, Friday.