University of St. Thomas Athletics
15-3, 9-2MIAC
Macalester
7-11, 2-9MIAC
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Macalester | 11 | 10 | 12 | 29 | 62 |
| St. Thomas | 14 | 28 | 22 | 15 | 79 |
Huge second quarter pushes women's basketball to win
1/27/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
ST. PAUL – The St. Thomas women's basketball team outscored Macalester 28-10 in the second quarter, which helped the Tommies to collect a 79-62 win over the Scots on Wednesday night at Schoenecker Arena.
With the win, St. Thomas improves to 15-3 overall and 9-2 in the MIAC, while Macalester drops to 7-11 overall and 2-9 in league play.
St. Thomas opened the game with three straight three-pointers, two from Lauren Fischer and one from Katie Stone to jump out to a quick 9-3 lead in the opening four minutes. But the Scots answered with a number of high-quality looks, cutting the gap to three points (14-11) after one quarter of play.
After Macalester scored the opening two points of the second quarter to cut the St. Thomas lead to just one point, the Tommies took off on a 10-0 run over the next two minutes and change. Kaitlyn Langer started a barrage of layups. Lucia Renikoff, Morganne Gruber, and Paige Gernes all converted their own layups before Renikoff sealed the run with her second easy one.
The two teams went back-and-forth over the next two minutes. Lauren Clamage hit from beyond the arc to cut the lead back to 10 points (31-21) with 3:37 remaining in the half. But it was all Tommies to end the half. St. Thomas finished the quarter with an 11-0 run to take a 42-21 lead to the half. Fischer was the catalyst in the run, scoring six of the 11 points.
From there, the Tommies kept control, outscoring the Scots 22-12 in the third quarter and building a lead as large as 33 points (70-37) midway through the fourth. Although Macalester did outscore St. Thomas 29-15 in the final frame, the deficit proved too much for the Scots to overcome.
Macalester held the edge in nearly all shooting categories. The Scots registered a 44.4-percent mark (24-54) from the field and 55.6-percent clip (5-9) from three-point range. These numbers compared to 43.7-percent (31-71) from the field and 33.3-percent (8-24) from three for the Tommies.
Macalester also won the turnover battle (12-10), but St. Thomas dominated the glass, outrebounding the Scots 49-27, which led to a 20-3 advantage in second chance points.
Lucia Renikoff led three St. Thomas scorers in double figures with 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting. She also added seven rebounds. Kaitlin Langer followed with 13 points and 10 boards, while Lauren Fischer finished with 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting.
Regan Fruh was the only player in double digits for Macalester and led all scorers with 17 points on 6-of-15 shooting. She also pulled down eight boards.
St. Thomas will take the hardwood once again on Saturday afternoon when it hosts St. Catherine at 3:00 pm at Schoenecker Arena.
