Senior captain Hannah Howard drives towards the basket. (photo courtesy of Roisen Granlund, Gustavus Sports Information '17)
ST. PETER, Minn. – The Gustavus women’s basketball team earned its second win of the season as the duo of Mikayla Miller (Jr., Goodhue, Minn.) and Miranda Rice (Jr., Forest Lake, Minn.) each tallied 16 points to lead the Gusties to a 79-38 victory over the College of St. Scholastica Friday evening at Gus Young Court.
After a fairly even first quarter, the Gusties pulled away to a 38-16 lead at halftime, establishing a 20-4 mark over the Saints in the second quarter. Similar to the Gustie’s season opening win over Martin Luther, Gustavus capitalized off opponents mistakes as they scored 34 points of St. Scholastica turnovers. The Black and Gold also finished opportunities on the fast break, leading the Saint 12-2 in fast break points.
Over half of the Gusties point total came from inside the paint, totaling 46. Miranda Rice was a vital player down low, shooting 6-10 from the field and leading the Gusties with seven rebounds. Mikayla Miller tied Rice’s total of 16 points as she shot 7-11 from the field, as well as 2-3 from three-point range. Senior captain Hannah Howard (Sr., St. Paul, Minn.) also played strong as she shot 5-6 from the field, totaling 10 points.
“Overall I thought it was a really good game for us,” said Head Coach Laurie Kelly. “Obviously, you never get redos, but ironically we were in a very similar situation after the Martin Luther game at halftime. We had given up 16 points to both teams and we had a significant lead. We did not come out and play well in the third quarter against MLC, we lost the third quarter, and we got an opportunity to come out and change that tonight, and that’s what we did. The third quarter was strong and really separated us.”
Gustavus jumped out to a 63-30 lead following the finish of the third quarter. They kept the ball rolling into the fourth as they registered their largest lead of the game three minutes in after a layup by Brooke Lemke (So., Delano, Minn.) gave the Gusties a 42-lead over the Saints.
Nine Gusties were able to notch double-digit numbers in minutes and 13 Gusties found their way in the scoring column.
“I thought we played really good minutes,” Kelly commented. “At halftime we had 11 turnovers, which is way too many unforced turnovers. We talked about making that adjustment at halftime and finished with 15 turnovers. Thirteen of 16 players played tonight and 13 of them scored. I thought it was a really well balanced game for us on both ends of the floor. The defense set the tone for us and we did a really good job of getting some easy points in transition.”
The Gusties conclude the Gustavus Classic action tomorrow afternoon, hosting Viterbo University at 3 p.m.