The St. Thomas women’s basketball team cruised to an 88-47 victory Monday over the last-place team in the MIAC, Augsburg.

The Tommies were led by junior Carolyn Dienhart with 16 points and senior Rachel Booth with seven points, eight rebounds and six blocks. The Auggies were led by junior Serenae Levine with 15 points and 15 rebounds.

“I just decided to take my shots when they were there and it ended up working out for me,” Dienhart said.

St. Thomas was able to build the big lead partly by shooting 52 percent in the first half and limiting the Auggies to 29 percent shooting. The Tommies led 10-1 and 25-4 at two different points during the game before going into the second half with a 49-21 lead.

“We talked about having a fast start offensively and defensively,” coach Ruth Sinn said. “Defensively I liked our pressure.”

Things got a little chippy in the second half when two Auggies fouled out. One of the players who fouled out was sophomore Brittany Dyshaw, who was called for a technical after shoving freshman Kelly Brandenburg, her fifth foul.

“The positive thing of that is, our players kept their composure, they kept their pose and we just kind of found a way to finish it out, even though it was a little ugly,” Sinn said.

Brian Woitte can be reached at bmwoitte@stthomas.edu.