Miranda Rice led Gustavus with 22 points.
ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Gustavus women’s basketball team earned its second conference win of the season at Macalester College Saturday afternoon, defeating the Scots by a score of 81-60.
The Gusties remain undefeated and push their record to 7-0 (2-0 MIAC), while Macalester falls to 4-3 (0-2 MIAC). The 7-0 start marks the best start to the season since the 2002-03 Gustavus squad began the season with a 13-0 record before suffering its first loss.
Similar to its previous game against Concordia, the Gusties’ hot shooting was a factor. Gustavus shot 15-29 from the field in the first half and followed that up with a 15-27 mark in the second to own a season-best 53.6 field goal shooting percentage for the game.
Miranda Rice (Jr., Forest Lake, Minn.) shot an impressive 9-12 from the field and led Gustavus with 22 points.
The Black and Gold was also lethal from beyond the arc. As a team, the Gusties were a season-best 10-14 from three-point range, shooting 71.4 percent. Mikayla Miller (Jr., Goodhue, Minn.) was a perfect 5-5 in three-pointers and compiled 19 points on the game. Miller is now just 20 points shy from breaking 1,000 points in her career.
“I definitely think it was an outstanding offensive performance based on how well we shot the ball,” said Head Coach Laurie Kelly. “You don’t really shoot 71 percent from the three-point line too often, so we were really strong offensively.”
Macalester’s shooting was also strong throughout the first half, as the Scots shot 52.4 percent from the field and were within nine points of the Gusties through two quarters of play. Gustavus led the Scots, 40-31 after the first half.
In the third quarter, the Gusties extended their lead to 20 and kept things rolling into the final frame. The Gusties twice their largest 23-point lead in the fourth quarter, last coming after Miranda Rice sank a free throw to push the lead to 70-53 around the halfway point of the fourth quarter.
“I thought defensively, we had some breakdowns and gave up too many points, more than we anticipated,” Kelly commented. “It was nice to see that we did a good job on the glass. That was a focus going in to make sure we rebounded the ball well. We limited our turnovers which was a goal of ours going into the game. Macalester played hard and they’re not going to go away and I give them credit, they kept battling back and shot the ball very well.”
Gustavus out rebounded the Scots, 33-21 and also led in second chance points 22-7.
“It feels good to be 7-0. It’s our first road win in conference play, which is a hard thing to do no matter who you play. Our team continues to try to build from where we are and get ready for the next game ahead.” said Kelly.
The Gusties return to Gus Young Court next Wednesday to take on St. Olaf College at 7 p.m.