University of St. Thomas Athletics
29-0
Luther
23-6
Another Sweet 16 trip for Women's Hoops
3/7/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
By DOUG HENNES
St. Thomas cruised into the NCAA Division III playoffs in 1992 with a 27-0 record and a 40-game winning streak over two seasons, focused on winning a second straight national title. Luther College had other ideas, however, and upset the Tommie women 61-60 in a second-round game.
Twenty-three years later, another undefeated St. Thomas team (28-0) squared off against Luther in another second-round NCAA playoff game, with the memory of that 1992 battle still faintly in the minds of some Tommie fans. Could the Norse pull off another upset?
Not quite, although they made valiant effort Saturday night, coming back from an 18-point deficit in the second half to close within two points before falling 60-57 to St. Thomas in Schoenecker Arena.
The win moves the No. 2-ranked Tommies (29-0) into the Sweet Sixteen for the third time in four years. They will face Hope College of Michigan on Friday, and will learn on Monday if they will host the Sweet Sixteen and Elite 8 rounds or will be on the road.
The rally by Luther (23-6) did not surprise St. Thomas senior guard Jenna Dockter, the MIAC's Player of the Year, who led St. Thomas with 15 points and nine rebounds.
"We knew this would be a game of runs, and Luther is very talented offensively," Dockter said of the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champions, who averaged 74 points game but finished with their second-lowest total of the season against St. Thomas. "We had success slowing down their possessions in the beginning, but they got going in the second half."
Coach Ruth Sinn wanted the Tommies to stop launching 3-pointers and move the ball inside when Luther made its run. They had hit 34 percent from beyond the arc coming into the game but made only 1 of 16 against Luther – the first they took – and had one four-minute stretch in the second half where they missed seven shots in a row. All were 3-pointers.
"We lost our identity a little bit," Sinn said. "I called a timeout and talked about that – how we did not need home runs but needed to get the ball to the post and play grind-out basketball."
Game of runs, indeed
St. Thomas used two 9-0 runs to pull to a 35-26 halftime lead, and another 9-0 run early in the second half built the margin to 44-28. Senior center Maggie Weiers' layup with 13:40 left in the game staked the Tommies to their largest lead at 50-32.
A 13-1 Luther run cut the St. Thomas lead to 51-45 with six minutes remaining and they closed to within 59-57 with 8 seconds left, fueled by Meagan Koepnick's red-hot shooting. The senior guard made 16 points in a row on eight of 10 shots in the final 6:37.
Senior forward Anna Smith, playing with a brace on an injured knee, was fouled with 6.5 seconds to go and made the second of two free throws to give the Tommies a three-point lead. Luther moved the ball into the frontcourt and called a timeout with 3.1 seconds remaining but could not get a clean shot off before the buzzer.
The Tommies shot over 50 percent before the Luther rally, but finished at 43 percent after making only 2 of 12 in the final 13 minutes. They also had 10 of their 18 turnovers during that stretch.
Smith finished with six rebounds and 10 points, including 6 of 9 from the free throw line, in 27 minutes. "Anna is our rock," Sinn said. "She epitomizes the toughness of this team. I wanted to control her minutes tonight but I couldn't. We needed her out there."
Koepnick was the game's leading scoring with 22 points. The Norse shot only 31 percent and lost the rebounding battle 47-34.
St. Thomas' next opponent, No. 14 Hope, defeated Wisconsin Lutheran 72-47. The winner of the St. Thomas-Hope game will play the Thomas More-Washington winner on Saturday for the right to go to the Final Four. Top-rated Thomas More, also undefeated at 29-0, defeated Eastern Mennonite 85-65 and No. 8 Washington topped Wittenberg 80-58.
Tommie Notes
Weiers moved into fourth place on the St. Thomas career scoring list at 1,402 points, moving past Taylor Young (1,398 points, 2011-14). Ahead of Weiers are Missy Pederson (1,557, 1998-2002), Kirsten Vipond (1,700, 1994-98) and Laurie Trow (2,607, 1989-1993), Weiers is second in career rebounds (884) behind Trow's 1,204.
St. Thomas has held 28 of 29 opponents under 60 points this season, with five scoring less than 40, and ranks third nationally at 47.7 points per game. The Tommies are 119-1 over the last six seasons when they hold opponents under 60 points.
