The Gustavus women’s basketball team defeated Hamline 85-67 on Saturday afternoon in St. Peter and moved into a three-way tie for first place in the MIAC after Concordia defeated St. Ben’s 68-56 win in Moorhead. Gustavus, St. Ben’s, and Macalester are all currently atop the MIAC with a league mark of 7-1. Against the Pipers, the Gusties were led by Molly Mathiowetz with 18 points.
The Gusties got off to a bit of a slow start and trailed Hamline 16-7 at the 13:01 mark of the first half. Gustavus countered with a 14-0 run over the next three minutes to take a 21-16 lead at the 8:43 mark. Molly Mathiowetz scored seven of the Gusties 14 points on the run. Gustavus would not trail the rest of the game.
Gustavus would quickly bump its lead to 13 points early in the second half, but an 8-0 run by the Pipers would cut the Gusties lead to five at 55-50 at the 13:38 mark. Gustavus would break the game open with an 18-3 run over the next six minutes as the Gusties lead was extended to 20 at 73-53 with 6:23 left to play. Hamline would trim the lead back to 13 points late in the game, but that is as close as the Pipers would get and the Gusties would hold on for the 18-point win at 85-67.
Balanced scoring was a key for the Gusties as four players scored in double figures including Mathiowetz with 18, Molly Geske with 17, Julia Schultz with 16, and Bri Radtke with 13. Gustavus made 27-of-57 shots from the field (47.4 percent) including 8-of-19 from behind the arc (42.1 percent). The Gusties were impressive from the free throw line making 23-of-28 (82.1 percent). Molly Mathiowetz led Gustavus at the line as she made 10-of-12 from the charity stripe.
The Gusties will return to action on Wednesday, Dec. 13 when they travel to St. Paul to face St. Thomas at 7:30 pm.