Presentation College could stop Minnesota-Morris inside and the Saints could stymie the Cougars outside, however it couldn't do both at the same time at the Strode Center Wednesday night.
The Saints were forced to pick their poison and eventually were snake-bit in an 84-56 non-conference women's college basketball setback.
When PC played man-to-man defense, Emily Mehr went off and when the Saints switched to zone, Kendra Wycoff made them pay.
"Those were the two that we were really worried about," said PC coach Alaina Benson. "We had to try different things tonight to see what our best defense was against those two girls."
The Saints hung tough for a while in the opening half with their man defense. However, eventually Mehr took advantage of her height advantage and ended up with 20 points in the first 20 minutes.
When Presentation decided to go zone in the second half, Wycoff connected for three three-pointers on the way to 15 second-half points.
"The man works for Wycoff. We kind of shut her down the first half," Benson said. "Mehr just kind of took it to us in that first half and had 20 points. Come out zone in the second half and she didn't score again, but then they had their three-point shooters kind of go off on us. We had a difficult time on defense tonight defending those two."
The two Cougars combined for 38 points to power Morris.
"It's nice to have players that can play both inside and out," said Morris coach Tim Grove. "I know how difficult it is trying to defend those types of players, because you really want to pick your poison."
Mehr, who stands 5-foot-11, has a variety of post moves which makes defending her with one person a challenging assignment.
"We thought we'd have a mismatch inside with Mehr," Grove said. "Even against 6-footers or 6-2 players, she does awfully well. We felt that we could get her going inside, which we were able to do in the first half."
Wycoff, who went off against the Saints at the Strode last year also, then started bombing away when the hosts switched to a zone.
"When we're shooting the ball from the outside, that makes us pretty difficult to defend," Grove said.
PC also had a tale of two halves with its offensive standouts. Hannah Phillips scored 19 points in the first half on her way to a game-high total of 25. Rachel Fuhrmann contributed 18 in all, 13 coming in the final half.
However, the Saints had a tough time once they got the ball inside as the Cougars blocked seven shots and altered many others. Abby Fragodt led the Cougar defense with three blocks.
"Anybody that went inside really had to earn their points," Benson noted. "Something that we need to get better at is noticing that when they do have a big post like that with a big wingspan, we have to make different moves inside. We can't just attack the rim and expect that we're going to get wide-open layups, because there's going to be a hand coming in there."
The Saints, 2-3 on the season, play host to Trinity Bible in a men's and women's doubleheader on Tuesday. The women begin at 5:30 p.m.
"It's going to be a good matchup, " Benson said. "They've really improved even since last year."
MINNESOTA-MORRIS (3-4): Abby Fragodt 3-5 0-0 7, Emily Mehr 8-15 3-3 20, Kendra Wycoff 6-16 2-2 18, Kayla Kramer 3-8 0-0 8, Kelsey Erickson 2-5 0-0 4, Maja Coomes 1-4 0-0 2, Emily Auch 5-8 0-2 10, Leah Peterson 1-2 0-0 3, Connor Lewis 1-2 0-0 2, Cori Becker 3-12 2-2 10, Carmen Bergstedt 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 33-77 7-9 84.
PRESENTATION (2-3): Rachel Fuhrmann 7-25 4-5 18, Hannah Phillips 10-16 2-3 25, Kaylee Voorhees 0-1 0-0 0, Abbi Geraci 2-7 5-6 9, Kelli Boekelheide 1-8 2-2 4, Karly Fuhrman 0-1 0-0 0, Lynn Weikel 0-0 0-0 0, Kendra Ostrom 0-4 0-0 0, Kelsey Braun 0-1 0-0 0, Tina Boldt 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-63 13-16 56.
Halftime score - Morris 42-30. 3-point field goals - Morris 11-31 (Fragodt 1-3, Mehr 1-4, Wycoff 4-11, Kramer 2-5, Erickson 0-1, Coomes 0-2, Peterson 1-2, Becker 2-3); Presentation 3-19 (Fuhrmann 0-3, Phillips 3-7, Geraci 0-5, Boekelheide 0-2, Ostrom 0-1, Braun 0-1). Total fouls - Morris 15; Presentation 10. Rebounds - Morris 49 (Fragodt 11); Presentation 38 (Fuhrmann 11). Turnovers - Morris 12; Presentation 16. Assists - Morris 21 (Fragodt 7); Presentation 15 (Geraci 7). Blocked Shots - Morris 7 (Fragodt 3); Presentation 0. Steals - Morris 6; Presentation 8 (Phillips 4).