University of St. Thomas Athletics
12-9,4-3Summit League
North Dakota
7-13,3-4Summit League
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Scalia leads Tommies to 76-66 win over North Dakota
1/27/2024 3:15:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Sophomore scored career-high 32 points in victory
FARGO, N.D. – The University of St. Thomas women's basketball team is back where it belongs: the win column. Thanks to clutch defense and some thrilling offensive performances, the Tommies rebounded from a disappointing loss Thursday in the best way possible: with a win over the University of North Dakota on Saturday. St. Thomas defeated the Fighting Hawks 76-66 behind a 32-point performance from sophomore Amber Scalia (Stillwater, Minn. / Stillwater). The Tommies now improve to 12-9 overall and 4-3 in Summit League play.
RECAP:
The first 15 minutes of play Saturday afternoon could only be described as defensive, as both St. Thomas and North Dakota struggled to find the bottom of the net. In fact, the two teams scored a combined 21 points in the first quarter, with the Tommies holding a slim 12-9 advantage over the Fighting Hawks. Scoring did not necessarily get easier for either team at the start of the second quarter, as it took nearly a full two moments for someone to score a basket. That someone was Nakiyah Hurst, who seemingly ignited something in North Dakota. Thanks to Hurst's five point scoring run, the Fighting Hawks jumped out to a 19-16 lead, as St. Thomas struggled to generate any sort of offense.
That changed in the final 5:18 of the second quarter. While the defense worked to shut down North Dakota's offense, the Tommies offense slowly but surely whittled away at the Fighting Hawk's lead, as free throws from Jade Hill (Minneapolis, Minn. / South) cut it down to 19-18 with four minutes to play. Then, Amber Scalia (Stillwater, Minn. / Stillwater) took matters into her own hands. With just three points to her name after the first quarter, the sophomore guard went off in the final minutes of the second, scoring 13 points to lead St. Thomas' impressive comeback. Her back-to-back threes bolstered the Tommies to a 24-19 advantage. From that moment on, St. Thomas would outscore North Dakota 18-0 and close its impressive run with a 34-19 halftime advantage.
The Tommies just kept piling on the points at the start of the third quarter, outscoring the Fighting Hawks 22-4 in an eight minute stretch, dating back to the second. Baskets by Jo Langbehn (Elk River, Minn. / Elk River) and Hill really fueled St. Thomas' fire, and it looked like the team would simply run away with its fourth Summit League victory of the year. However, once North Dakota scored its first basket of the second half at 8:30, the Fighting Hawks flipped the script. In just a few short minutes, North Dakota whittled the Tommies lead to 49-39, forcing St. Thomas to call a timeout with 43 seconds to spare.
Those final 43 seconds of the third quarter belonged to Hill, who scored four points and forced two Fighting Hawk turnovers in the closing minute of play. She also secured a 53-39 lead for the Tommies, sufficiently ending North Dakota's few minutes of dominance. However, St. Thomas could not put the Fighting Hawks to bed in the fourth and final quarter. North Dakota continued to hang around, using a full court press to force multiple Tommie turnovers, and eventually cut the lead to 69-59 with 49 seconds remaining in the game.
In the end, St. Thomas was able to stave off North Dakota, thanks to the efforts of Scalia and Sammy Opichka (Green Bay, Wis. / Notre Dame). The duo went 7-8 from the charity stripe in the closing seconds of regulation, helping the Tommies secure the 76-66.
TOP TOMMIES
- Amber Scalia (Stillwater, Minn. / Stillwater) put up monster numbers Saturday afternoon, scoring a career-high 32 points on 9-18 shooting, including a 5-9 clip from three-point range. The sophomore also tallied five rebounds, two assists and two steals in the win.
- Jade Hill (Minneapolis, Minn. / South) scored 12 points in the win and tallied a team-leading four assists and three steals, while Jordyn Glynn (Grand Meadow, Minn. / Grand Meadow) added seven rebounds.
- Sammy Opichka (Green Bay, Wis. / Notre Dame) made a huge impact off the bench, scoring 11 points in the win.
NOTEABLES
Sophomore Amber Scalia (Stillwater, Minn. / Stillwater) became just the second Tommie in the DI era to score 30+ points in a game Saturday afternoon and the first to do so since Erin Norling in 2021-22. Norling scored 34 points against North Dakota State on January 13, 2022, marking over two full years before another St. Thomas player would eclipse the 30 points threshold. Scalia closed Saturday's game with a career-high 32 points, the second most points scored by a Tommie in the last three seasons.
UP NEXT
St. Thomas will return to Schoenecker Arena for its next slate of Summit League games, as the team is set to host the University of Nebraska-Omaha on Thursday, February 1. Tip off is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. CT in St. Paul, Min
