University of St. Thomas Athletics
16-0,10-0MIAC
Augsburg
9-8, 2-8MIAC
Milestones for Langer, win for women's hoops
1/21/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
ST. PAUL – Senior Kaitlin Langer collected a pair of milestones in an 89-63 win over Augsburg College for the St. Thomas women's basketball team. Langer scored her 1,000th point and pulled down her 500th career rebound on her way to a 26-point, 14-rebound performance on Saturday afternoon.
With the win, St. Thomas improves to 16-0 overall and 10-0 in the MIAC, while Augsburg drops to 9-8 overall and 2-8 in league play.
Three days after exploding for a career-high 27 points, Gabby Zehrer picked up where she left off, scoring the first five points of the game to give the Tommies a quick 5-0 lead. Though the Augsburg would cut into the St. Thomas lead and tie the game throughout the afternoon, the Tommie women would not trail the remainder of the way, winning all four quarters on the afternoon.
Langer's first milestone of the day came quickly, just 4:11 into the contest. The senior needed four rebounds to become a part of the 500 club. After missing a layup, she gathered her own rebound to punch her ticket into the select group.
Two minutes later, Lucia Renikoff made a three-pointer to open up St. Thomas' largest lead of the first quarter of six points (14-8). But the Auggies came back to cut the lead in half to three (19-16) heading to the second quarter.
The Purple then raced out to a 15-point lead (33-18) through the first half of the second. St. Thomas opened the frame on a 14-2 run through the opening 4:52. However, Augsburg came right back to answer with a 14-5 run to close out the half and cut the lead to seven (40-33) headed to the break.
Clinging to the seven-point lead, Langer took the load on her shoulders. At one point, she rattled off nine straight points, capped by a free throw to score her 1,000th career point and give the Tommies a six-point lead (55-49) with 3:53 remaining in the third.
The Auggies cut the lead to as few as three in the quarter, but senior Gabby Zehrer five straight points and Langer finished off an 11-point run to give St. Thomas a 63-49 lead with a minute left in the third. The Auggies cut the lead back to 11 points (65-54) to end the third, but it was as close as they would come in the game. St. Thomas went on to outscore Augsburg 24-9 in the final quarter to seal the win. The Tommies finished the game on a 37-14 run.
St. Thomas shot 46.3-percent (31-67) from the field on the afternoon and held Augsburg to just 33.3-percent (23-69). The Tommies also hit 10 triples (10-24) to shoot 41.7-percent from deep. They also owned the rebound battled (51-37), second chance points (14-7), and points in the paint (38-28).
Langer led all players with 26 points and 14 rebounds, including seven offensive boards, to tally her 22nd career double-double. She ended the day with 1,008 career points and 510 career rebounds.
Lauren Fischer followed Langer with a near double-double of her own. The junior finished with 18 points and nine rebounds, knocking down four threes, while Zehrer added 17 points and four assists.
Augsburg posted three players to score in double figures. K'Aezha Wubben racked up 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting, while Aiza Wilson came off the bench to add 14 points and Tamira McLemore chipped in 13.
St. Thomas will be back in action on Wednesday night when it hosts Macalester College at 7:00 pm.
