SIOUX CITY, Iowa – Ball handling struggles made things difficult for the College of Saint Mary basketball team on Saturday.

After a solid first 11-plus minutes, turnovers allowed Morningside University to pull away from the Flames in the second quarter of their Great Plains Athletic Conference basketball contest at the Rosen Verdoorn Sports Center.

Morningside forced 10 of CSM's 27 turnovers in the second 10 minutes, and went on a 29-4 run in that period en route to an 88-58 win over the Flames.

The Mustangs scored 33 points off those 27 turnovers.

"Turnovers killed us,'' CSM Coach Natalie Miller said. "We have to do a better job of handling pressure and making good decisions out of a press.''

Morningside improved to 11-8 overall and 6-7 in GPAC play, while CSM dropped to 3-16 and 2-11.

The Flames trailed just 18-14 at the 8:29 mark of the second quarter when Meghan Keil scored off a Jai'La Porter assist. However, Morningside ran off 29 of the next 33 points to lead 47-18 late in the first half and never looked back.

CSM was only outscored by two points in the second half, 39-37.

For the Flames, Madelyn Gaughen led the way with 16 points, hitting 3 of 4 from 3-point range, to go with six assists, five rebounds and three steals. Haley Debuse added 13 points and eight rebounds. Porter had nine points, six rebounds and three assists, and Keil added eight points, including a pair of 3s.

"We definitely want to build on our momentum of moving the ball – something we did much better in the second half – which opened up a lot more shots for us,'' Miller said.

CSM returns to action Wednesday when it travels to Hastings College for a 6 p.m. GPAC contest.