SAINT PETER, Minn. – The Gustavus women’s basketball team put together a dominant all-around effort Saturday afternoon, defeating St. Olaf 82-45 and securing themselves a spot in the MIAC playoffs. With the win the Gusties improve to 16-5 overall and 12-4 in the MIAC, while the Oles fall to 8-13 overall and 5-11 in the league.
“We came out of the gates strong for the second straight game,” said Head Coach Laurie Kelly. “We knocked down shots early to give us a lot of confidence, and we got scoring from a lot of different people. Our ability to knockdown open shots today started giving us really good looks inside. All around it was a solid performance, particularly on the defensive end, to get the win.”
The Gusties used an all-around attack in the early going of the game, jumping out to a 15-2 lead, with all five starters notching a bucket and Marisa Gustafson (Jr., Mahtomedi) leading the charge with a pair of threes. Gustavus would continue to hang onto their lead, but St. Olaf would cut the deficit to five points with 23 seconds remaining in the quarter before Alison Hinck (Jr., Vadnais Heights) buried a three to put the Gusties up 23-15 after one frame.
The second quarter was low scoring, with the defense of the Black and Gold stealing the show. Gustavus held St. Olaf to 3-of-16 shooting in the frame, and forced five turnovers as they outscored the Oles 14-7 in the second quarter to take a 37-22 halftime lead.
After a slow start to the third quarter with the teams trading baskets, the Gusties took over the game thanks to a 20-7 run the final 6:24 in the quarter and took a 29 point lead into the fourth quarter. During its 20-7 run, Gustavus dropped in 4-of-5 triples with Maddy Rice (Fy., Forest Lake) contributing two of them.
In the final quarter Gustavus would quickly push their lead to 36 points and the two teams would hold steady and trade baskets the final six minutes of play as Gustavus took the 82-45 victory.
Ava Gonsorowski (Jr., Esko) led the Gusties with 17 points and six assists in the contest, while Caitlin Rorman (Fy., Blue Earth) added 14 points. Anna Sanders (Fy., Vadnais Heights) added 11 points, seven rebounds, and four assists off the bench while Gustafson was the other Gustavus player in double figures with 10 points. Paige Richert (Jr., Comfrey) had a solid day patrolling the glass, hauling in a season-high 12 rebounds to go along with eight points.
“We’re playing well at the right time and three of our final four games are on the road so today was something good to build on for the next two weeks,” said Kelly.
Gustavus is next in action Wednesday when they travel to St. Catherine for a 7 p.m. contest.