The No. 8-ranked St. Thomas women’s basketball team extended its win streak to nine games with a 67-45 win over Augsburg and secured sole possession of first place in the MIAC standings Wednesday night at Shoenecker Arena.
Senior guard Katie Stone was one of three players to score in double figures for St. Thomas and had a game-high 16 points. Two 3-pointers from Stone at the start of the game sparked an early 9-0 lead for the Tommies, and they never looked back. St. Thomas (19-3 overall, 13-2 MIAC) closed the first quarter with a 21-4 lead, after hitting four of five 3-pointers and playing its best defensive quarter of the season.
“If we have good tempo, were going to be efficient on offense and defense,” Stone said. “Once we got defensive rebounds and pushed the tempo on offense, it led to great baskets.”
Coach Ruth Sinn said the fast-paced offense was one of the reasons the Tommies were able to take the early lead and hold it the rest of the game.
“The tempo was exactly what we want. It was fast, and it was quick. We have a team that is a little bit deeper, so that depth really helps out,” Sinn said.
Junior center Kaitlin Langer recorded her 12th double-double of the season with 14 points, ten rebounds and three blocks. Langer averages the second most points per game and rebounds per game in the MIAC.
The Tommies held the Auggies to 33 percent shooting in the first half and had a 36-19 lead going into halftime.
Augsburg (12-10 overall, 7-8 MIAC) narrowed St. Thomas’ lead to 12 points with 4:53 left in the third quarter, but that was the closest it would be for the remainder of the game. St. Thomas answered with a 10-1 run to close the third quarter at 52-31.
“We knew this game was going to be really important defensively,” Langer said. “We had to be able to rely on our defense, and it was just getting to loose balls, getting the first rebound and not letting them have offensive boards or fast breaks.”
The Tommies’ aggressive defense and efficient transition offense lead to 23 points off of 17 forced turnovers.
“Our defense did a great job of really shutting the lane down,” Sinn said. “[Augsburg] didn’t get a lot of easy looks, and that’s one of the reasons we were able to get a lot of turnovers.”
Forward Lauren Fischer added 11 points for the Tommies and shot 3-for-4 from beyond the arc. St. Thomas shot 51 percent as a team and connected on ten 3-pointers in the victory.
Wednesday night’s game marked the homecoming for Augsburg coach Ted Riverso, a University of St. Thomas Athletics Hall of Famer. Riverso coached the women’s basketball team at St. Thomas for 15 years between 1984 and 1999, leading the Tommies to 13 consecutive trips to the NCAA playoffs, including a National Championship in 1991.
St. Thomas has three regular season games left, and all will be tough tests as it hopes for another MIAC regular season title.
“This is a great opportunity for us. We’re playing some great teams right now — teams that are either vying for the playoffs or really close to the playoffs,” Sinn said. “They’re kind of like playoff games … [and] the nice thing about that is it gives us that opportunity to really build and grow and really solidify our identity heading into the conference tournament.”
Up next for St. Thomas is a rematch with Bethel at 3 p.m. on Saturday on the road.
Joey Geske can be reached at gesk8583@stthomas.edu.