University of St. Thomas Athletics
10-2,4-1MIAC
Gustavus Adolphus
8-4, 3-2MIAC
Women's basketball opens new year with win
1/6/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
ST. PAUL – The St. Thomas women's basketball team opened the new year with a 67-45 win over Gustavus Adolphus on Wednesday night at Schoenecker Arena. After trailing 29-25 at halftime, the Tommies held the Gusties to 16 points in the second half, while racking up 42 points of their own.
With the win, St. Thomas improves to 10-2 overall and 4-1 in the MIAC, while Gustavus drops to 8-4 overall and 3-2 in league play.
The Gusties jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead in the opening minute of the game thanks to an offensive rebound and put-back by Miranda Rice and a three-pointer from Mikayla Miller. The Tommies came back to take their first lead of the game nearly seven minutes in when Morganne Gruber connected on a pair of free throws.
After Gustavus regained the lead for the final two minutes of the quarter, St. Thomas recaptured the advantage on a last-second layup by Kaylie Brazil.
The second quarter belonged to the Gusties, however. Gustavus would lead by as many as six points in the frame before Katie Stone banked in a layup as time expired to cut the deficit to four (29-25) headed to the locker room at halftime.
A 16-0 run to open the second half proved to be the difference for the Tommies as they would never look back. The run was fueled by nine points from Stone and lasted 8:07. Miller finally snapped the scoreless streak for the Gusties with two free throws.
St. Thomas went on to take a 44-35 lead to the fourth quarter. The nine-point difference was as the close as the score would be for the remainder of the night, as the Tommies sped off to the 22-point victory.
For the game, the St. Thomas defense held the Gusties to just 33.3-percent shooting (16-48) and forced 29 Gustavus turnovers. Those 29 giveaways led to 23 St. Thomas points. Comparatively, the Tommies shot 36.9-percent from the field and turned the ball over just 14 times. Gustavus won the rebound battle by a count of 40-35.
Junior Kaitlin Langer led the way for the Tommies with her seventh double-double of the season. Langer scored a game-high 19 points and pulled down another game-high 10 rebounds for the Purple. Senior Katie Stone followed with 13 points, knocking down a pair of triples.
Mikayla Miller and Kelsey Carpenter each scored 10 points to pace the Gusties. Miller also hauled in a team-high eight rebounds.
St. Thomas will be back in action on Saturday afternoon when it hosts Bethel University at 3:00 pm in Schoenecker Arena.
