University of St. Thomas Athletics
25-3
Loras
19-9
Stone fuels game-saving rally for W. Hoops
3/4/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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By DOUG HENNES
RIVER FALLS, Wis. – Kaitlin Langer had a look of anguish and frustration on her face. The junior center had just fouled out with six minutes left in the fourth quarter after scoring 25 points, and her St. Thomas team trailed Loras by 11 points.
No problem. Just give the ball to Katie Stone. The senior guard went on a remarkable run, scoring 10 points over the last 5:32 to help force overtime and then tacking on another 10 points to lead the Tommies to a 76-68 win in their NCAA Division III playoff opener.
The heroic rally catapulted No. 8 St. Thomas (25-3) into a second-round game at 5 p.m. Saturday against host UW-River Falls, which rolled over Wheaton 81-56.
It was the fifth straight year -- and 13th time in the last 15 NCAA playoff appearances -- that the Tommies won an opening-round game in the tournament. Loras finished 19-9.
"This one has ice in her veins," Coach Ruth Sinn said after the comeback, pointing to Stone, whose career-high 32 points blew by her previous high of 23 set in the MIAC playoffs last weekend. "She loves the big moments, and she stepped up tonight."
Stone just shrugged and tried to give credit to her teammates for setting her up.
"I just think I had the ball at the right moment," said Stone, whose five 3-pointers gave her 79 for the season, which extended her MIAC record, and 200 for her 100-game career, which ranks second in school history. "I definitely thought the momentum shifted when we hit those late 3s."
Stone was referring to Loras' 61-52 lead with three minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. She made back-to-back 3-pointers at the 2:46 and 2:13 marks, and after a Loras free throw, the Tommies' Lauren Fischer hit a trey to cut the Duhawks' lead to 62-61 with 1:45 left.
Loras added another free throw before Fischer's shot in the lane dropped to tie the game at 63-63 with 18 seconds to go. Loras missed a shot at the buzzer to send the game to overtime, where it was all Stone – again – as she scored 10 of St. Thomas' 13 points.
Fischer, with 15 points, joined Stone and Langer in double figures, and the three starters combined for 72 of the Tommies' 76 points. The trio also made the All-MIAC team announced earlier this week, and coaches named Langer the conference Player of the Year.
"These kids battled," Sinn said. "They just never gave up. They kept looking for solutions, even when things weren't looking so good after Kaitlin fouled out."
Poor shooting in first half
Both teams struggled from the field in the first half, with St. Thomas holding a 21-19 lead at halftime despite shooting only 23 percent to Loras' 31 percent.
The Tommies jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first two minutes on a Langer layup, a Fischer 3-pointer and two Langer free throws. Loras rallied for a 12-12 tie after the first quarter, but neither team could gain any momentum in the second quarter.
Langer, in particular, was ineffective in the first half, missing nine shots after her first basket and tallying only four points. So what did she do in the second half? She went nine of 12 from the field and added three free throws for 21 points over a 15-minute stretch before fouling out.
The coaches took her aside at halftime "to help me out with the confidence thing," she said. "They told me, 'Don't stop shooting, but go slower.' It gave me the confidence to step it up."
Sinn said it would have been easy to panic when Langer fouled out and the Tommies trailing by 11 points, but the coach told her team to stop worrying about the game's outcome and to focus on each possession.
"Rather than being the passive team and the victim," Sinn said, "we started being aggressive and attacking more. It paid off."
It also helped that Loras cooled off. The Duhawks built their lead on the strength of four straight 3-pointers in the third quarter, but they stalled after a 14-7 run that gave them their largest lead at 58-46. St. Thomas closed with a 17-5 run to force overtime, and during that stretch Loras missed its only two shots and seven of 12 free throws.
Tommie Notes
The win was the 15th in a row for St. Thomas over nearly two months and extended the four-year record of this year's seniors to 104-15 (.874).
The Tommies have an all-time NCAA tournament record of 44-22 (.667) in 23 appearances since 1984.
The Tommies' eight 3-pointers against Loras gave them 218 on the season, a new MIAC record. Langer recorded her 16th double-double of the year with 25 points and 11 rebounds.
River Falls (22-5) won the WIAC regular-season title and took second in its playoffs. In defeating No. 17 Wheaton, the Falcons shot 56 percent from the floor, including 6 of 13 (46 percent) from beyond the arc. They also outrebounded Wheaton 49-28.
