St. Paul – Much like what happened to Hamline University in the first meeting between the two teams back on Dec. 13 in St. Peter, the Gustavus women’s basketball team simply ran out of time during its late-game comeback attempt. Trailing 49-36 at halftime and then 80-74 with just :47 seconds remaining in the game, the Gusties cut the Piper lead to 82-79 with :07 seconds left but could not close the gap completely and as a result suffered their second consecutive loss.
It is the first time this season that Gustavus has dropped two consecutive games. The Gusties are now 13-6 overall and 7-5 in the MIAC. Hamline picks up the series split and snaps a four-game losing-streak with today’s win. The Pipers are now 10-9 overall and 5-7 in the MIAC.
Despite trailing by as many as ten points in the opening nine minutes of the game, Gustavus took a 32-31 lead on a Lindsey Johnson (Jr., Edina, Minn.) jumper with 6:11 remaining in the half. From there, the Pipers responded with an 18-to-4 scoring-run in the remaining minutes to go up 49-36 at the break.
Turnovers turned out to be the difference in the first half as both teams shot over 60-percent from the field. The Gusties turned the ball over 14 times compared to six for Hamline in the opening 20 minutes. The MIAC’s leading scorer, Jordan Sammons, went to work early and scored 16 first half points after going 6-for-9 from the field.
Hamline rode the momentum into the second half where it built a 20 point lead up 65-45 with 12:17 remaining in the game. Gustavus began to slowly chip away at that point and eventually cut the gap to 10 (70-60) with 6:43 on the clock. Just when it looked like the Gusties were poised to come all the way back, Hamline stifled the momentum and scored four unanswered points to go back up by 11 (76-65) with 3:12 remaining.
With the Pipers on top 79-69 at the 2:49 mark, Gustavus scored 10 of the game’s next 13 points but could not close the gap before time expired.
Gustavus had three players reach double-figures in the second half including Lindsey Johnson with 12, Mikayla Miller (Fy., Goodhue, Minn.) with 10, and Hannah Howard (So., St. Paul, Minn.) with 10. The Gusties shot 35.3-percent from the field compared to Hamline at 38.1-percent in the second half.
Jordan Sammons led all scorers in the game with 26 points after going 10-for-18 from the floor and 6-for-10 at the free throw line. Sammons was complimented by Chelsey Bonsante with 19 points, Chloe Graves with 15, and Emily Behrman with 14.
Leading the Gusties was Johnson and Miller who both scored 19 points. Johnson got hers on 6-of-13 shooting from the field, 4-of-7 from three-point range, and 3-of-6 at the line, while Miller went 6-for-16 from the field, 1-for-3 from three, and 6-for-6 at the line. Hannah Howard scored 10 points (3-4 FG, 4-6 FT), and Maddie Ehrich (Sr., Eden Prairie, Minn.) also added 10 (3-8 FG, 4-6 FT).
The Gusties finished the game 45.6-percent (25-57) from the floor, 40-percent (6-15) from three, and 75-percent (21-28) at the stripe. Gustavus won on the glass 39-to-25, yet lost the turnover battle 22-to-17. The Pipers capitalized on those turnovers with 31 points – 22 of which came in the first half.
Hamline shot 51-percent (25-49) from the field, 55.6-percent (10-18) from three, and 61.1-percent (22-36) at the line.
The Gustavus women’s basketball team will look to get back on track Wednesday, Feb. 4 when it travels to Northfield for a 7:00 p.m. game against Carleton College.