University of St. Thomas Athletics
Carleton
Women's Basketball loses in OT in playoff final
3/1/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Carleton 53, St. Thomas 50
Junior Hannah Oken-Berg had 17 points and 10 rebounds and led fourth-seed Carleton to a 53-50 overtime victory over St. Thomas in the MIAC women's basketball playoff championship Saturday at UST's Schoenecker Arena.
Junior Amber Connor had four of her eight points in overtime for the Knights (19-8), who rallied from an 11-point early-second half deficit.
Carleton claimed the MIAC's automatic berth into the NCAA playoffs. The Knights have won 10 of their last 11 games including road wins over the MIAC co-champs in a four-day stretch this week. Carleton has won five women's playoff titles in the eight-year history of the format and is 5-0 vs. the Tommies in postseason play.
The Tommies (20-7), who had won nine of their previous 10 games, will await Sunday night's announcement of the 63-team Division III field to see if they get an at-large berth. Carrie Embree had 15 points and nine rebounds for UST.
In the first half, St. Thomas outscored the Knights 21-0 from 3-point range, all from non-starters. But UST missed its last nine 3-point tries in the second half and overtime. Andi Olson had nine points and Anna Swanson had six points, all from 3-point range
Carleton's inside defense tightened in the second half and held UST's second leading scorer, Jessica Katch, to seven points. The Tommies had a 23-5 edge in bench scoring but made just five field-goals in the second half and overtime.
The Knights made their first six shots of the game and raced to a 16-4 lead, then went cold. Carleton didn't make a field goal over the last 12:05 of the first half, and UST's subsequent 16-0 run built a 34-25 halftime lead.
Carleton used a 13-3 run to take a 47-43 lead with 4:05 to go but went scoreless the rest of regulation. The Toms tied the game 47-47 on two Sheena Porter-Wrzos free throws with 1:33 left. UST missed two game-winning shots to close regulation.
Leading 51-49 with 26 seconds to go in overtime, Carleton missed a shot as the shot clock expired. The ball grazed the net and missed the rim for an apparent shot-clock violation, but play was not stopped, and Anna Biewen had a putback to build the lead to four. After a discussion, the officials let the basket stand. UST had one last chance to tie but missed a contested 3-point shot with :04 to go.
Box score:
http://www.tommiesports.com/wbb/stats/3-1-wbb.htm
Mike Ekern photos:
Carrie Embree
Sheena Porter-Wrzos
Jessica Katch
