Mikayla Miller streaks toward the basket. (Photo courtesy of Wayne Norman, SPX Sports)
ST. PETER, Minn. – The Gustavus women’s basketball team earned a 79-61 win over St. Olaf College Wednesday evening, backed by a 25-point performance by Mikayla Miller (Jr., Goodhue, Minn.) who reached the 1,000-point mark for her career.
The Gusties remain undefeated and move to 8-0 overall (3-0 MIAC), while the Oles fall to 2-6 (0-3 MIAC). Gustavus has outscored opponents by double figures in each game this season.
Sitting at 980 points in her career prior to the game, Miller just needed 20 to reach the 1,000-point mark. Miller shot 7-16 from the field, 5-10 from three-point range and was perfect from the free throw line to lead Gustavus with 25 points, becoming the 11th all-time Gustavus women’s basketball player to reach 1,000 points and also becoming the fastest to reach the milestone.
“I was glad to see Mikayla get her 1,000th point tonight, what a great accomplishment,” said Head Coach Laurie Kelly. “I think she would recognize that is a great team accomplishment because everyone’s involved in that.”
As a team, Gustavus tied its best performance of the season from beyond the arc, nailing 10 three-pointers. The Gusties had a balanced scoring output, with four players in double digit scoring. Miller, Hannah Howard (Sr., St. Paul, Minn.), Justine Lee (So., Dawson, Minn.), and Miranda Rice (Jr., Forest Lake, Minn.) led the Black and Gold offense.
“I think offensively we were able to keep subbing in some fresh legs and eventually just wore them down,” Kelly commented. “Obviously, we had four kids in double figures and anytime you can have balanced scoring it really helps.”
Howard was 6-6 from the field, Lee was 3-5 from three-point range, and Rice tallied 12 points for her seventh double figure game this season.
Gustavus jumped out to a 22-7 lead after the first quarter before allowing St. Olaf to make a small comeback in the second quarter. After one half, the Gusties owned a 38-28 lead. Gustavus shot 42.4 percent from the field and 41.2 percent from three-point range through two quarters of play.
“The minutes that we played good, we played really well,” said Kelly. “When we lost our intensity and aggressiveness on the defensive end, that’s when we gave them easy looks. Our goal is to be that team like we were today in the first and fourth quarter. Credit to St. Olaf, they got down early and battled back in the second and they kept alive in the third.”
Gustavus was able to gain a 20-point lead over the Oles around the midway point of the third quarter, and eventually establish its largest lead of the game in the fourth quarter when a layup from Brooke Lemke (So., Delano, Minn.) extended the lead to 76-53 with just over five minutes remaining in the game.
The Gusties out-rebounded St. Olaf by a mark of 42-27.
“One of the keys going into the games for us besides defense, was rebounding. I thought we did a nice job on the glass and that was a focus as well as to keep our turnovers down,” Kelly mentioned.
The Black and Gold continue Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play Saturday afternoon, heading to Winona, Minn. to battle against Saint Mary’s University.