LA CROSSE, Wis. – The Gustavus women’s basketball team remained undefeated as Mikayla Miller (Jr., Goodhue, Minn.) tallied a program-record 34 points to lead the Gusties to a 67-47 victory at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Tuesday evening.
With the win Gustavus moves to 4-0 overall on the season, while UW-La Crosse falls to 2-2.
In their fourth consecutive game outscoring the opponent by at least 20 points, the Gusties were led by Miller who bested her previous career-high of 31 points set her first season at Carleton College.
“She (Miller) shot the ball really well,” said Head Coach Laurie Kelly. “She was good on defense too, she had eight steals tonight and was able to pick the ball a couple of times. She got on a roll where she hit some great shots for us, driving to the basket.”
Coming into the game, UW-La Crosse had averaged 72 points per game. Coach Kelly and the Gustie’s game plan was to limit the Eagle’s scoring.
“Our focus was to not give up 72 points, and defensively we held them to 47, which was phenomenal,” Kelly commented. “I am really proud of our defensive effort. We dominated the glass, which was another area we talked about.”
A strong first half gave the Gusties a 36-21 lead over UW-La Crosse. In two quarters of play, Gustavus was shooting 45 percent from the field and 33 percent from beyond the arc. The Gusties also capitalized on Eagle turnovers, owning a 13-3 lead in points off turnovers.
Gustavus had pushed the scoring margin up to 21 near the halfway point of the third quarter with a layup by Miller, but then gave UW-La Crosse room for some pushback as they cut the Gustie lead to 11 at the end of the quarter as the score read 51-40 in the Gustie’s favor.
“The third quarter for us was not a good quarter,” said Kelly. “We came in with a good sized lead at halftime but took our foot off the gas and made a lot of mental mistakes. I think the area that I take away from the game is the 23 turnovers, most of them were unforced. We were not crisp offensively tonight, which is hard to say because we had 67 points but if you take Mikayla out of the mix, we need to get more scoring out of our bench.”
The Gusties also had solid contribution from Miranda Rice (Jr., Forest Lake, Minn.) who posted 12 points, and Taylor Anderson (So., Rogers, Minn.) who led Gustavus with a career-best eight rebounds.
“It is a good win. When you go on the road and beat a WIAC school, that’s a really good win for us. It feels good going into this couple day break before Thanksgiving,” Kelly mentioned.
The Black and Gold return to action Saturday afternoon as they host Buena Vista University at Gus Young Court.