Two more Division II women's hoops teams rise nationally: SMSU and Concordia (St. Paul)

Southwest Minnesota State and Concordia (St. Paul) witnessed up close and personal what the gold standard looked like for Division II women's college basketball. The national champion came from the same state and conference last year.

After winning it all, Minnesota State Mankato returned five of its top seven players, including three starters from 2023-24.

The Mavericks, who also won the NCAA men's crown last year, have the talent to win the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference again, but Concordia (St. Paul) and SMSU — winners of 23 consecutive games in women's hoops combined entering this week — have risen to challenge them this year.

"Being on a team that's competing with these top programs has been extremely fun and so rewarding," Concordia (St. Paul) senior guard Lydia Haack said.

After a 78-65 victory over Wayne State on Tuesday, SMSU led the league with a 17-2 record, followed by CSP at 16-2 and MSU Mankato at 15-3. The same three schools were on top of the NSIC men's standings as of Monday.

But all three women's teams were ranked in the DII top 25 poll Tuesday. CSP was the highest of the three at No. 12 nationally, followed by SMSU No. 17 and Minnesota State No. 25.

"This league is as good as any in the nation," SMSU coach Tom Webb said. "So for us to stay where we are, we have to just keep working. Just keep attacking every day and see what happens."

To be the champion, you typically have to beat the champion.

Concordia (St. Paul) did earlier this season. In SMSU's case, it took losing to Minnesota State and CSP in December to deliver the wakeup call it needed. That turned into a 15-game winning streak, which was tied for the fifth longest nationally entering this week.

"I think our biggest takeaways from those losses was to relax, be confident in ourselves and be able to move on to the next play," SMSU senior guard Bri Stoltzman said. "We're striving for greatness and have a competitive group."

A big reason for the Mustangs' second-longest win streak in team history has been the play of Stoltzman, who has averaged 23.4 points in the past 14 games. That included six times scoring 25 points or more and a career-high 41 vs. Northern State on Jan. 17.

A high school star at Mankato West, Stoltzman grew up right in the backyard of Minnesota State. Still, the 5-8 guard was drawn to a smaller school at SMSU in Marshall, Minn. She's improved offensively each season and led SMSU to 15 conference wins last year, the most for the program in 23 years.

"When I was getting recruited, I kind of knew this place was for me right away," said Stoltzman, who set SMSU's single-season scoring record last year. "It wasn't really a tough decision at all."

A former college baseball player at SMSU, Webb started his coaching career as a student assistant on the Mustangs women's hoops team in 1998-99. He eventually returned to take over as head coach in 2016.

That same year, Amanda Johnson was hired as full-time coach at Concordia (St. Paul) after having the interim tag removed at her alma mater.

Johnson was one of the top scorers in CSP history from 2005-08, but she found the most success as a coach by adopting a defensive identity. In 2018-19, her best season prior to this one, her Golden Bears won the NSIC South Division behind the conference's top field-goal defense.

Now, riding a nine-game winning streak, the Golden Bears have their best defense in nearly a decade, leading the entire league in fewest points allowed per game (59.6) and lowest opponent field-goal shooting (36%) through 24 games.

The most impressive games were when Concordia (St. Paul) held down Southwest Minnesota State (final score: 72-58) and Minnesota State (64-56) to their lowest scoring games in wins this season. CSP still beat the Mavs after committing 32 turnovers.

"Our biggest thing we just stress is defense, so that even if we have turnovers, we still need to get stops," Johnson said. "We really lock in on who we're guarding and study a lot of film. We know personnel and have the right players on the right people."

A stifling defense alone wasn't enough for the Bears to battle Minnesota State and SMSU for a championship, though.

Concordia (St. Paul) needed a healthy Haack, who missed last season because of a knee injury after transferring from Upper Iowa University as a first-team all-league guard.

Haack, a former Elk River star, is grateful to be healthy this season with the Bears, but she's also enjoying the ride back in her home state with a NSIC title contender.

"It's been exciting," said Haack, who had a season-high 30 points last week vs. Sioux Falls. "Last year was very devastating, but I was able to maintain a very positive mindset through it all. Just focused on getting one percent better every day, which I think really helped me come back as strong as I could for this season."

Fuller's five

Five Minnesota ballers who stood out:

Anthony Edwards, Timberwolves

The All-Star guard is first in Wolves history to put up back-to-back-to-back 40-point games with 49 points vs. Chicago, 41 points vs. Houston and 44 points vs. Cleveland.

Nolan Groves, Orono

The 6-5 senior and Yale recruit erupted for 57 points in last week's 102-98 win against St. Louis Park.

Nolan Minessale, St. Thomas

The 6-5 freshman had five of his 14 points in the final 36 seconds of a 79-76 win at Denver last week, including the game-sealing free throws with 13 seconds to play. He also had 23 points in the Tommies' last home win Feb. 2 vs. North Dakota State.

Cedric Tomes, East Ridge

The 6-foot junior and Gophers target combined to score 74 points in back-to-back games last week, which included 32 points for the Raptors in an upset against undefeated and No. 1 Class 4A Cretin-Derham Hall 89-70 last Friday.

Tyler Wagner, Champlin Park

The 6-6 senior exploded for a career-high 60 points in last week's 104-97 win against Blaine, including shooting 24-for-27 from the free-throw line.

Numbers game

1,000 Career three-pointers for Anthony Edwards to become the youngest to reach that mark in NBA history.

720 Career victories milestone for Alexandria coach Wendy Kohler in a win vs. Fergus Falls last Friday to move into second in girls state history.

80 The length in feet of a 3/4-court halftime buzzer-beater from Minnesota Crookston's Emma Miller that was an ESPN SportsCenter top-10 play after a win last week against Northern State.

11-12 Three-point shooting in a game for Perham freshman Regan Hemberger, who had 34 points in a 76-60 win over Frazee. Her team went 17 of 25 on threes.

Basketball Across Minnesota will be published weekly on startribune.com. Don't be a stranger on X after reading, as chatting about these stories makes them even more fun to share. Thanks, Marcus (@Marcus_R_Fuller on X).