Graduate student forward Erin Norling led the St. Thomas women’s basketball team with 19 points on 8-of-16 shooting, but the Tommies’ meager 34% perimeter shooting was unable to best Northern Iowa as the Tommies fell 102-62 Wednesday at Schoenecker Arena.
The match marked the first time the Tommies (1-6) have faced the Panthers (4-2) in basketball competition in program history. As a whole, St. Thomas athletics are 0-2-1 against Northern Iowa in the Division I era.
“I give Northern Iowa a lot of credit, they came after us here,” coach Ruth Sinn said. “I give our team a lot of credit, too. Midway through the second quarter … we were right there in that game—they had to call a timeout—we just needed to answer with that and we’re still working on the consistency piece.”
The Tommies’ shooting was anything but consistent, shooting 22-of-63 on the night.
Norling added three 3-pointers to her team’s total of eight, but the Tommies started the game off slow, trailing 7-0 before their first basket by graduate student forward Kaia Porter after more than four minutes of play.
“My teammates find me when I’m open, which is obviously awesome—you can’t score without your teammates,” Norling said.
The Tommies trailed 17-10 entering the second quarter and were able to keep Northern Iowa’s lead to four, but the Panthers’ bench players came alive and never looked back.
The Panthers made four 3-pointers in the second quarter, adding to their 17-point halftime lead over the Tommies. Three more 3-pointers in the third quarter and a 13-0 scoring run by the Panthers quelled any hope the Tommies had for a second-half comeback.
“I think we lost a couple of their shooters; they had a player that came off the bench that really lit it up,” Sinn said. “All of a sudden they went three-by-three-by-three and we kind of lost that momentum and went a little inward.”
Beyond scoring runs and 57 points off the bench, the Panthers forced the Tommies to make costly ball-handling mistakes. St. Thomas had 14 turnovers, which contributed to an additional 12 Panther points.
“After a game like this, definitely a lot of things that we need to learn on and get better,” senior guard Maggie Negaard, who contributed seven points and three assists, said. “Obviously we need to do something off the court to improve that and make sure those mistakes don’t happen.”
Sinn says her team is making strides on defense, but turnovers contributed to her team’s loss.
“Turnovers are always a factor,” Sinn said. “We’re improving on our transition defense but we have to take some better steps and (Northern Iowa) is a good transition team.”
Northern Iowa outscored St. Thomas 55-to-32 in the second half.
“Sometimes experience is a hard lesson to learn, but it’s the best lesson to learn as long as we’re aware with it,” Sinn said.
The Tommies take on Chicago State University Saturday, Dec. 4 at noon in their final away game before a five-game home stretch.
Cam Kauffman can be reached at kauf8536@stthomas.edu.