University of St. Thomas Athletics
27-0
Bethel
21-6
Women's Hoops completes MIAC sweep
2/28/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
By DOUG HENNES
Four years ago, a group of St. Thomas basketball freshmen got what Coach Ruth Sinn called a "taste" of a magical season that ended with a trip to the NCAA Division III Final Four and a third-place finish.
Those freshmen are seniors now – owners of a 27-0 record, winners of four straight MIAC playoff championships. They're primed for what they hope will be another deep run in the NCAA playoffs.
The No. 2-ranked Tommies secured an automatic bid into the national tournament for the 22nd time in school history with a hard-fought 65-51 win over Bethel on Saturday. They will learn their next opponent on Monday, and if they will host the first round beginning on Friday, when they will attempt to become the first St. Thomas women's team to start a season 28-0.
"When you have eight seniors trying to leave a mark, that can happen," Sinn said about the perfect regular season and another conference playoff title. "This is a hungry group that is focused."
The focus paid off on Saturday against Bethel (21-6), which came into Schoenecker Arena having lost only one of its 14 previous games – 81-77 to St. Thomas 10 days ago. In that game, the Royals became the only team this year to score more than 58 points against the Tommies, who are third in Division III for scoring defense at 47.8 points a game, and dominated the boards 41-24.
"We controlled the tempo today for the most part," Sinn said of outrebounding the Royals 52-27 and holding them to their lowest scoring total of the season. "We defended well."
The game was physical from the outset, and the referees would call 20 fouls on each team. St. Thomas jumped to a 10-4 lead but Bethel scored six straight points for a tie and took a 17-14 led with 9:14 left in the first half.
The Tommies clamped down on defense and closed with a 19-4 run, allowing only four Bethel free throws, to go into the break with a 33-21 lead. They extended the lead to 48-25 in the first eight minutes of the second half.
"We like to build leads by doing three things – score, stop, score," said senior center Maggie Weiers, who had a career-high 19 rebounds and 14 points. "We want to be efficient on offense and lock down on defense, and that really worked for us today in building the big lead."
As it turned out, the big lead was necessary. After going for a stretch of 17 minutes with only two field goals, Bethel got hot. The Royals went on a 13-0 run over the next five minutes to cut the St. Thomas lead to 48-38 with 7:22 remaining.
"We were being way too passive at that point," said Sinn, who tried to energize her team with some simple advice during timeouts. "I told them, 'You can't play that way – you should enjoy every single minute and play like it's 0-0.' "
Senior point guard Jenna Dockter thought the Tommies "got a little unfocused" on defense, but the Bethel run didn't surprise her. "They have strong posts and their guards are physical," said Dockter, who played all 40 minutes and scored 18 points. "We knew it would be a tough battle."
Reserve guard Hannah Hughes ended the Royals' run with a layup, followed by a Weiers' jumper to build the St. Thomas lead to 52-38. Bethel got no closer than eight points, and the Tommies finished with eight straight free throws in the last 90 seconds.
Elaine Warner was the third Tommie to hit double figures, with 11 points off the bench, and Katie Stone had nine on three first-half 3-pointers – the only St. Thomas treys after hitting 11 in each of two previous wins over Augsburg and Hamline. Senior forward Anna Smith had eight rebounds in just 10 minutes before sitting out the second half with a knee injury.
Kalli Zimmerman and Rachel Parupsky led Bethel with 21 and 20 points, respectively, but no other player had more than three points. The Tommies outscored Bethel 22-2 in bench points.
In building its 27-0 season, St. Thomas tied the 1991-92 for the best start in school history. That Tommie team, coming off a 1991 national championship, had its 40-game winning streak over two seasons snapped in the second round of the NCAA playoffs.
The Tommies have won at least one NCAA playoff game each of the last three years. After going 5-1 in the tournament en route to the third-place finish in 2012, they won twice in 2013 and a first-round game last year.
