Center Kaitlin Langer maintained her national-tournament dominance with 25 points and 12 rebounds as the St. Thomas women’s basketball team overshadowed University of Wisconsin- River Falls 67-46 in the second round of the national tournament Saturday night.
Langer finished the first half with 10 points and ten rebounds, which marked her 16th double-double of the season. In St. Thomas’ 76-68 overtime victory over Loras the night before, she recorded 25 points and 11 rebounds despite fouling out in the middle of the fourth quarter. Langer viewed Saturday night’s game as a “fresh start.”
“(I was) really frustrated with fouling out yesterday, but today I was really focused on play after play and every time I missed a shot it was, ‘Alright, next play, what does the team need,’” Langer said.
Despite chalking up a double-double in the first half, Langer shot 5 of 13 from the field. All-MIAC guard Katie Stone didn’t provide much assistance, shooting 2 of 9 from the field, including 1 of 7 from behind the arc, en route to five points in the first half.
The No. 8-ranked Tommies (26-3 overall, 16-2 conference) held a slim four-point lead over the No. 13-ranked Falcons (23-6 overall, 22-5 conference) heading into halftime. Following the break, St. Thomas broke the game wide open by outscoring River Falls 27-7 in the third quarter.
Already outscored 7-0 in the first three minutes of the second half, Falcon coach Cindy Holbrook tried to half the Tommies’ momentum by calling a timeout, but St. Thomas’ ability to hit 3-pointers and shovel the ball to Langer in the post was too much for the River Falls defense. At one point, coach Ruth Sinn’s squad outscored the Falcons 15-1. Sinn said the Tommies capitalized on the Falcons’ defense with good teamwork.
“They were playing help, and we were exploiting where they were playing help,” Sinn said. “I thought the girls did a good job executing, being all into what we were doing and all on the same page.”
Although she was second on the team in total points with 12, Stone’s weak shooting performance from the first half carried over to the second half. She finished connecting on five of her 17 shots, including two of 10 from behind the arc.
This performance is coming on the heels of a career night in St. Thomas’ 76-68 overtime victory over Loras College. The senior scored a career-high 32 points, including 20 of the team’s last 29. Stone said it would have been tough to match her record-breaking night.
“I don’t think you can follow up a performance like that,” Stone said. “Tonight we played together as a team, and tonight my shots didn’t fall, but my teammates’ did and all that matters is that we won.”
No Falcon reached double-digit points, not even first-team All-WIAC forward Taylor Karge. The sophomore tallied nine points, along with All-WIAC honorable mention guard Richell Mehus and forward Kate Theisen. Overall, River Falls shot 19-for-52 from the field. Langer’s ability to contain the Falcons in the first half led to second-half success.
“They’re a very aggressive team, so I think we knew that if we could shut down their energy and shut down their momentum in the first half, we would have the advantage on them,” Langer said.
For the fourth time in the past five years, the Tommies are heading back to the Sweet Sixteen. The exposure in the first two rounds will be crucial given the lack of experience on the roster.
“We keep using the experiences to learn from and to grow,” Sinn said. “With this group, we can only use this year because, with the exception of (Stone), they don’t have (experience of) two years ago, three years ago.”
St. Thomas will battle Wartburg College, who upset No. 11-ranked Wisconsin-Oshkosh 66-56 Saturday night, next Friday. Center Kailey Kladivo leads the Knights with 14.6 points per game with guard Katie Sommer with 11.4 points per game.
Jesse Krull can be reached at krul7386@stthomas.edu.