Point guard Colleen Ruane tries to penetrate the Augsburg defense.
Julia Schultz and Molly Geske trap Augsburg’s Michelle Richter.
Coach Mickey Haller talks to her team during a 30-second timeout.
Guard Ava Perry starts the fastbreak with a pass up the court.
The Gustavus women’s basketball team, which was playing its first home game in nearly a month, responded with a strong performance and ran past Augsburg 72-44. The Gusties, who led by nine at half (35-26), pulled away from the second half as they outscored the Auggies 37-18. Senior guard Emily Nelson led all scorers with 17 points.
The two teams battled very evenly for the first ten minutes of the game and the Auggies held a 16-15 lead at the 9:47 mark. The Gusties, however used a quick 9-0 spurt to take an eight -point 24-16 lead with 7:19 left in the half. Gustavus would build its lead to as many as 14 at 35-21, but Augsburg went on a 5-0 run in final two minutes of the half and went into the locker trailing the Gusties by nine at 35-26.
In the second half, Augsburg battled to stay close and trailed by 11 at 44-33 with 14:21 left in the game. Gustavus broke the game open with an 8-1 run that increased the lead to 19 points at 53-34 at the 11:10 mark. The Gusties full court pressure gave the Auggies lots of trouble and the Gustavus lead increased to 32 points at 72-40 with two minutes remaining in the contest. Augsburg closed out the game with a 4-0 run to make the final score 72-44. The Gusties registered 16 steals in the game and harrassed the Auggies into 29 turnovers.
Joining Emily Nelson in double figures for Gustavus was Molly Mathiowetz with 13 and Molly Geske with 10. Brianna Radtke played a very strong game at the point guard position and registered 10 assists.
Augsburg was led by Christa Suedbeck who tallied 13 points and grabbed 13 rebounds.
Gustavus, which improved to 13-6 overall and 11-5 in the MIAC, will host Macalester on Wednesday at 7:30 pm.