ST. PAUL, Minn.- The Gustauvs Adolphus College women’s basketball earned an 81-71 victory over Hamline University on Saturday afternoon at Hutton Arena. The Gusties had a slow first quarter, trailing 15-6 after the first 10 minutes, but were able to fend off the Pipers to take home the win. This puts Gustavus at 9-4 overall and 4-2 in the MIAC.
“The second quarter is what made the difference for us today,” said Coach Laurie Kelly. “Defensively, we could have done some things better in the second half, but they shot lights out, so if it weren’t for the strong second quarter we played, we don’t have the cushion in that second half that we did. Credit to Hamline for not giving up…Bonsante is a great shooter for them and she proved that today with some really tough plays that she made.
Leading the Gusties to victory were Mikayla Miller (So., Goodhue, Minn.), Kelsey Carpenter (Jr., St. Peter, Minn.) and Taylor Anderson (Fy., Rogers, Minn.). Miller and Carpenter led the team in points with 23 and 14, respectively, while Anderson scored a career high of 11 points. Her previous best was eight, which she scored at Saint Mary’s on Dec. 2, 2015.
“It was fun to see Mikayla get back on track and I thought she was key for us,” said Kelly. “It was also nice to see Kelsey and Taylor both make shots for us and get some confidence back. We hope that they’ll continue that going forward here.”
After trailing in the first quarter, the Gusties were able to bounce back and gain a 15-point lead over the Pipers after 20 minutes of play. During the third quarter, the Gusties brought their advantage to 18 at the 2:36 mark (62-44), but Hamline fought back and closed the gap to seven points (70-63) at the 5:37 mark of the fourth. A Miller three-pointer brought the Gustie lead back to 10, and from that point, Gustavus’ lead never dipped below eight again for the remainder of the contest, eventually taking the 10-point victory.
“This will be a good game for us to break down and evaluate,” said Kelly. “We did some really nice things, including reducing turnovers and valuing the basketball, which is something we worked on a lot at practice these past few days. We’re looking forward to coming home now after a long road trip and playing in a gym where we tend to play our best basketball.”
The Gusties scored 23 points off of 21 Hamline turnovers. Gustavus also scored 36 of its 81 points from the bench, versus the Pipers’ nine. The Black and Gold also tallied 26-second chance points from its 21 offensive rebounds.
Hamline’s key players included junior guard Chelsey Bonsante who scored 25 points and had six assists, along with Chloe Graves who scored 18 points and also had six assists.
The Gusties take on St. Catherine University at home on Wednesday at 7 p.m.