Kelsey Carpenter made five three-pointers in Gustavus’s two point victory over St. Olaf on Saturday afternoon.
Northfield, Minn. – Despite trailing by 10 points with less than 13 minutes remaining in the game, the Gustavus women’s basketball team rallied late to defeat St. Olaf College 64-62 on Saturday afternoon at the Skoglund Center. The Gusties extend their winning-streak to five games and are now 9-2 overall and 3-1 in the MIAC. St. Olaf drops to 4-7 overall and 1-3 in the MIAC with the loss.
“With a young team that doesn’t have a lot of experience, any win on the road in the MIAC is a good win,” said Head Coach Laurie Kelly. “From my perspective, I’d rather play ugly and win than play great and lose. When you’re able to walk away from games like this with a win, it makes it a lot easier to look back on the areas the we need to improve as we prepare for our next opponent. Hopefully, we learn from those areas and are able to get better in our next time out.”
Trailing 48-38 with 12:33 left in the second half, Gustavus went on an 11-0 scoring-run to take a 49-48 by the 9:40 mark. The two teams traded leads from that point on until the score was knotted at 61-61 with 1:36 on the clock. Hannah Howard (So., St. Paul, Minn.) knocked down two free throws with :39 seconds to go, and St. Olaf’s Nikki Frogner answered with a free throw to bring the score within one point (63-62) with :28 seconds left. After Mikayla Miller (Fy., Goodhue, Minn.) hit a free throw to put the Gusties back up two (64-62) with :15 seconds left, Frogner failed to convert on two free throw chances with :02 seconds on the clock that sealed the win for Gustavus.
“The thing that is unique about this team is that the closer to crunch time it gets, the better we play,” said Kelly about her team’s late-game performance. “We got better down the stretch at River Falls and we got better when the game was on the line tonight. You usually see that poise from teams with much more experience, but it’s great to see from this young team.”
Playing an integral part in this afternoon’s win was the play of Gustavus’s bench, which provided 26 of the team’s total points. Kelsey Carpenter (Fy., St. Peter, Minn.) led the charge off the pine with 15 points after going 5-for-9 from the field with all five field goals coming from behind the arch. Emmaline Crawford (So., Mankato, Minn.) finished next in line with 11 points after going 3-for-6 from the floor and 5-for-7 at the line.
“St. Olaf played a lot of zone and Kelsey Carpenter thrived with the green light all afternoon,” commented Kelly. “Emmaline Crawford was also big for us in one of her first games on the court. She was an impact presence inside and was great at getting to the line.”
“The first thing I said after the game was that we won because of the play of our bench,” Kelly added. “Since I’ve been at Gustavus, this is the deepest bench we have had. A lot of players get into the game and it allows you to use different lineups to create and counter certain situations.”
Gustavus committed 13 turnovers compared to St. Olaf’s 17 and won the battle on the glass 38-34.
The Gusties shot 42-percent (20-54) from the field, 30-percent (6-20) from three-point range, and 72-percent (18-25) at the line. St. Olaf shot 42-percent (21-50) from the floor, 40.9-percent (9-22) from three, and 57.9-percent (11-19) at the line.
The Gustavus women’s basketball team will be back on the hardwood Wednesday, Jan. 7 when it travels to Minneapolis to face Augsburg College at 7:00 p.m.