University of St. Thomas Athletics
26-3
UW-River Falls
23-6
More Sweetness: Women Hoops wins again
3/5/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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By DOUG HENNES
St. Thomas Women's Basketball blew open a close game with a 26-point explosion in the third quarter to defeat UW-River Falls 67-46 Saturday and advance to the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Division III tournament for the fourth time in five years.
The No. 8-ranked Tommies will play unranked Wartburg (21-7) on Friday March 11 and will find out the site of the game on Sunday. UST has a strong chance to get hosting responsibilities for the four-team March 11-12 Sweet 16 sectional, which also will include No. 2-ranked George Fox (Ore.) (29-0) and No. 6-ranked Texas-Tyler (29-1).
The Tommies (26-3) trailed No. 13-ranked River Falls (22-6) by six points midway through the second quarter before going on a 10-0 run to close the half and lead 27-23 at the break.
The onslaught continued in the third quarter, when St. Thomas scored the first seven points and 14 of the first 15 to take a 41-24 lead.
The Falcons went more than nine minutes without a field goal and scored only seven points in the quarter, which ended with the Tommies ahead 53-30.
The Tommies coasted from there to the victory, led by junior center Kaitlin Langer's game-high 25 points and 11 rebounds. The MIAC Player of the Year, who had the same totals in Friday night's comeback win over Loras, recorded her 17th double-double of the season. Senior guard Katie Stone scored 12 points and junior forward Lauren Fischer had nine, all on perfect 3-for-3 shooting on 3-pointers.
"The second quarter was the turning point," coach Ruth Sinn said. "We started locking down into our defensive game plan and we did a good job keeping them out of the lane. They were getting their shots, but they were from the outside, and that made a difference."
Sinn was delighted to see the 14-1 run coming out of the locker room, and she again used a "locked" reference to describe her young team's performance on an opponent's home court. The Tommies graduated four starters off last year's Elite 8 team.
"We haven't had a lot of kids on this kind of stage," she said. "We talked a lot about that this afternoon, and I liked what I saw in the shoot-around."
River Falls, which won the WIAC regular-season title and took second in the conference playoffs, was coming off an 81-56 win over No. 17 Wheaton Friday night. The Falcons shot 56 percent from the floor and held a 49-28 rebounding edge over Wheaton, which defeated the Tommies during an Iowa tournament after Christmas.
"But we're not the same time we were in December," said Sinn, who pointed out that the Tommies had lost starter Gabby Zehrer, a 14-point per game scorer, to a knee injury. "I'm so proud of our players and how we've progressed and developed, especially since the Bethel game."
That Bethel game, an 80-60 loss at home on Jan. 9, was the last game that St. Thomas has been on the short end of a score. The Tommies have since won 16 games in a row.
Tommie Notes
St. Thomas shot slightly better than River Falls – 40 percent to 37 percent – but forced 14 turnovers while committing only seven and outrebounded the Falcons 41-33.
The Tommies' five 3-pointers against River Falls gives them 223 on the season, extending their school and MIAC records. Stone had only two 3-pointers but extended her St. Thomas and MIAC season records to 81, and she now has 202 for her 101-game career.
The Tommies have an all-time NCAA tournament record of 45-22 (.672) in 23 appearances since 1984. They improved to 3-0 this season against WIAC conference teams.
