Winona, Minn. – The Gustavus Adophus women’s basketball team saw its six-game winning-streak come to an end with 74-67 loss to Saint Mary’s University on Saturday afternoon at the SMU Gym. Gustavus drops to 10-3 overall and 4-2 in the MIAC, while Saint Mary’s snaps its four-game losing-streak and improves to 9-4 overall and 3-3 in the MIAC.
“I never felt like we were ready to compete,” said Head Coach Laurie Kelly following the loss. “Despite going with a different lineup due to some injuries, the players who stepped into new roles for Saint Mary’s came to play and played with fire. They were the aggressor, pushed the tempo, and were the better team for most of the game.”
Although the Gusties trailed 40-33 at the half after Saint Mary’s shot 61.5-percent from the field, Gustavus was able to claw its way back into the game during the opening stages of the second half and eventually tie the game at 48-48 with 14:37 on the clock. With the score tied 50-50 with 13:48 on the clock, the Cardinals went on a 16-1 scoring-run to put them on top 66-51 with 6:54 to go. Despite cutting the lead to three points (66-63) with 1:58 to go, the Saint Mary’s run turned out to be the difference, as Gustavus could not make up the remainder of the gap.
“Although we didn’t play Gustavus basketball for the majority of the game, I give us a lot of credit for battling our way back into the game,” Kelly said. “We got the game to even and eventually took the lead, but went on a dry-spell that did us in. We have prided ourselves on our ability to finish games, but we made too many mistakes down the stretch and they took advantage.”
Gustavus shot 40.6-percent (26-64), made just 1-of-11 three pointers, and knocked down 87.5-percent (14-16) of its free throws. Saint Mary’s finished the game 52.0-percent (26-50) from the field, 46.7-percent (7-15) from three, and 48.4-percent (15-31) at the line.
“We lost the game on the defensive end,” Kelly stated. “We didn’t the play the way we prepared and failed to take away the parts of their game that we planned. We simply didn’t get stops and didn’t have the intensity on the defensive end. That’s really tough to handle coming off such a good stretch of basketball.”
Mikayla Miller (Fy., Goodhue, Minn.) led the Gusties with the first double-double of her collegiate career. Miller scored 22 points on 9-of-20 shooting and brought down a game-high 13 rebounds (10 defensive). Lindsey Johnson (Jr., Edina, Minn.) scored 12 points (4-9 FG), Maddie Ehrich (Sr., Eden Prairie, Minn.) added 10 (4-7 FG), and Miranda Rice (Fy., Forest Lake, Minn.) provided 10 (4-10) to round out Gustavus’s top scorers.
The inside play of Molly O’Toole proved too much for Gustavus as the rookie scored a team-high 18 points after going 7-for-9 from the floor. Emma Schaefer scored 15 points on 5-of-14 shooting, while Micaela Merdith scored 14 on 4-of-6.
Gustavus’s bench yielded just five points compared to Saint Mary’s 19. The Gusties won the rebounding battle 43-to-30 but committed 18 turnovers to the Cardinals’ 15.
Following five consecutive games on the road during which they compiled a record of 4-1, the Gusties return to Gus Young Court on Wednesday Jan. 14 for a 5:45 p.m. game against Concordia College.
“What makes this such a disappointing loss is because of the opportunity that was presented to us,” concluded Kelly. “It’s disheartening for sure, but we survived a tough stretch of games and will be back at home on Wednesday against a talented Concordia team.”