The St. Thomas women’s basketball team is heading to its seventh-consecutive MIAC championship game, following a 20-point performance by center Kaitlin Langer in the first-seeded Tommies 69-48 victory over fourth-seed Concordia-Moorhead in the MIAC semifinals Thursday night at Schoenecker Arena.
Langer was one of four Tommie players who scored in double figures with guards Katie Stone, Lucia Renikoff and Maddie Wolkhow being the other three. Stone scored 18 points with six rebounds, Renikoff recorded 14 points and Wolkhow chipped in 10.
In the first quarter, St. Thomas (23-3 overall, 16-2 conference) controlled the game both offensively and defensively. The Tommies jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first three minutes on top of holding the Cobbers to 3-of-14 shooting. Renikoff even connected on a buzzer-beater three pointer to give St. Thomas a 18-6 lead.
The Cobbers answered in the second quarter with a run of their own. Back-to-back three-pointers near the three-minute mark gave Concordia-Moorhead (18-9 overall, 13-5 conference) its first lead of the game. St. Thomas regained the lead in the final minutes of the half and took a 27-24 lead into the break.
St. Thomas coach Ruth Sinn stressed the importance of their defensive play against the Cobbers’ perimeter offense.
“Concordia is a great offensive team. We really talked about how they’re really going to try to hit those energy threes, and we can’t let them do that,” Sinn said. “We weren’t giving open looks on the outside, and I thought our girls did a nice job of that.”
The Tommies took over the second half behind senior Katie Stone’s lights-out shooting. Stone, who was held to only four points in the first half, hit four straight from beyond the arc in the second half and finished with 18 points.
“I just got a step ahead of the defense,” Stone said. “They were guarding me pretty tight all night, and then once my teammates set good picks I stepped behind the screens and shot over them.”
St. Thomas connected on 7-of-14 three-pointers in the second half and lead by as much as 22 in the fourth quarter. The deep ball has been a large part of the Tommies offense this year, having set the school record for most three-pointers in a season, and extending their total to 203 tonight.
“We’ve got so many that can hit the outside shot,” Sinn said. “You’ve got to give Kaitlin (Langer) a lot of credit for that. A lot of it is going in and out because they’re so worried about Kaitlin. But I can’t speak enough about Katie Stone. She’s got ice in her veins.”
Stone’s 71 three-pointers on the year set an individual school record for most in a season.
Jenna Januschka lead Concordia-Moorhead in scoring with 18 points, while Olivia Johnson finished with 10 points and nine rebounds.
The Tommies have now won 13 straight games and will enter Sunday’s Championship game having lost only one home game over the last two seasons.
St. Thomas will host No. 2-seed St. Mary’s in the MIAC Championship at 3 p.m. on Saturday at Schoenecker Arena. The Tommies swept the regular season series against the Cardinals, beating them 76-67 in January and 89-65 in the regular-season finale. A win would give the Tommies their fifth straight MIAC playoff title and an automatic bid to the NCAA Division-III Tournament.
Joey Geske can be reached at gesk8583@stthomas.edu.