In a back and forth battle, the St. Thomas’ women’s basketball team, led by junior center Brynne Rolland’s 11 points, defeated Concordia-Moorhead 63-58 Saturday at Schoenecker Arena.

Junior center Allie Spaulding and senior guard Macy Hatlestad followed close behind Rolland, both scoring ten points each for the Tommies (2-0).

“Concordia did a great job in defending us,” Coach Ruth Sinn said. “I was really proud of the team in that, the ball wasn’t going in the hoop for us so we found different ways to be successful and get the outcome we wanted.”

The first quarter ended with Concordia (0-2) taking a six point lead over the Tommies. That lead was snuffed out in the second period as the Tommie’s gained an eight point lead over the Cobbers.

Rolland felt that her team was composed and played at their own tempo.

“Between the whole team, we didn’t really get sped up by them a whole lot, and we kind of controlled the tempo of the game,” Rolland said. “I think that would be the biggest thing. Coach (Ruth Sinn) always talks a lot about how we have to control the game and control the tempo to get the shots that we want, and not have them force us to make shots.”

Spaulding echoed Rolland’s sentiment and praised the team’s preparation.

“I think we also made them take shots that they weren’t used to, so like, controlled the game on defense too, like, we weren’t scrambling around the whole time. We were very prepared.” Spaulding said.

Sophomore guard Emily Beseman led the Cobbers with 25 points, 13 of those points made from free throws. Sophomore guard Kaylie Isaman scored another 9 points for Concordia.

The Tommies play Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Hamline University. To prepare, Sinn talked about what would be stressed during practice in the coming days.

“We have to make sure that we are defending the arc a little bit better,” Sinn said.

Sinn ended by praising the team’s effort.

“The biggest thing we gotta do is talk about winning the effort battle. That can’t be an issue. So we want our players to feel like, OK, they can control that, and then they can control the tempo of the game with that,” Sinn said.

Owen Larson can be reached at lars6521@stthomas.edu.