Guard Kellie Ring’s career-high 22 points, including 6-for-6 3-point first-half shooting, boosted the St. Thomas women’s basketball team to a 68-54 victory against Gustavus Wednesday at Schoenecker Arena.

The Tommies’ win (17-5 overall, 15-4 MIAC) extended the team’s winning streak to four.

Coach Ruth Sinn said the team’s mentality coming into the game was to improve after the last time these teams met in early January when the Tommies trampled the Gusties 65-43.

“We’ve got to improve and get better,” Sinn said. “We were hoping in this game we would take a step in the right direction. It isn’t really much about the wins in that situation, it’s about how do we get better.”

St. Thomas and Gustavus (14-8 overall, 12-6 MIAC) battled back and forth early in the first half. The Tommies did have the upper hand though as the Gusties played a zone defense, which forced St. Thomas to shoot from the outside.

Ring had 18 points and two assists in the first half alone. Ring, who shot 100 percent from beyond the arc, said her team contributed to her hot outside shooting nd her game-high 22 points.

“They were just in a zone in the first half and I was open and my teammates were giving me the ball,” Ring said. “I haven’t been shooting well, so it was kind of nice to get some shots in.”

Forward Jenna Dockter also added to the strong St. Thomas offense as she dropped nine first-half points. Dockter controlled the low post area with her tactical up and under moves. Dockter said the team’s practices influenced a lot of her low post game play.

“We’ve been working a ton on driving and kicking, so to get open shots,” Dockter said. “A lot of it is moving on offense well as a team and getting people open shots.”

The Gusties worked the ball down to the lower post area with Gustavus center Karina Schroeder scoring 10 points in the first half. Gustavus’ offense finally started breaking down as the St. Thomas full-court press forced nine Gustie turnovers.

When the first half ended, St. Thomas finished the half shooting 57 percent, the same as the team’s 3-point percentage.

The Tommies had 15-point lead at halftime. Gustavus would not let St. Thomas recreate its first half’s success as it switched to a man-to-man defense.

Numerous fouls bogged down the start of the second half and as the pace slowed, so did the Tommie offense. The Tommies moved the all around the arc and looked for the open player.

Sinn said swinging the basketball around helps the team in every aspect of its game plan.

“It spreads it out,” Sinn said. “We have some speed, we have some athleticism and we can get to the lane, but you can’t get to the lane if you never take an outside shot.”

This speed and athleticism was shown midway through the second half when forward Taylor Young stole the ball and dished it off to guard Annessa Hicks. Hicks then passed it off to center Alyssa Favilla, who scored a layup to put the Tommies up 58-42.

Gustavus would not bow down, cutting St. Thomas’ lead to 11 after a mid-range jumper from guard Julia Dysthe with just under five minutes to play. This would not be enough as the Tommies finished off Gustavus with 10 more points in the final minutes to finish out the game.

Ring said it’s great for the team to be back to its winning ways.

“It’s good to be back on track and playing well with each other and getting back into the groove of things,” Ring said. “We’re taking it one game at a time, but it feels really good.”

St. Thomas goes head-to-head against St. Benedict’s Saturday, which gave the Tommies their first MIAC defeat of the season.

Dockter said the team is looking for revenge after the Blazers snapped the Tommies’ previously undefeated MIAC record.

“We’re coming for them because they handed us our first loss of the MIAC this year,” Dockter said. “We’re going to come to that super focused and working hard and wanting to get that win back.”

Jesse Krull can be reached at krul7386@stthomas.edu.