ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Gustavus women’s basketball team traveled to St. Catherine Wednesday night and held off a late St. Kate’s comeback for a 67-65 victory. With the win the Gusties move to 17-5 overall and 13-4 in the MIAC, while the Wildcats fall to 11-11 overall and 8-9 in the league.
“We played really good in the first half and shot it super well,” said Head Coach Laurie Kelly. “But in the second half we didn’t play great and they took it to us. Ava hit a big shot late and Caitlin played really well to help us hang on. This was a game where we can look at a lot of things and see what we need to work on in our final stretch of games. We wanted to be able to put ourselves in a situation where we could clinch a home playoff game and we were able to do that tonight and it’s something we’re excited about.”
Gustavus was able to jump out to a 19-7 lead in the first 7:13 of play thanks to eight points from Caitlin Rorman (Fy., Blue Earth) and six points from Anna Sanders (Fy., Vadnais Heights). St. Kate’s would hang tough late and go on a 4-0 run the last 2:47 of the quarter to cut the lead to single digits heading into the second.
Sanders would continue her stellar shooting in the second quarter by knocking down a pair of triples and a layup early, while Ava Gonsorowski (Jr., Esko) added a pair of layups and a three-pointer as the duo outscored the Wildcats 15-8 in the first six minutes of the second frame to take a 34-19 lead. The Wildcats would battle and cut the Gustie lead to 11 with time winding down but a Sanders basket late would give her 16 first half points and put Gustavus up 40-27 after one half.
St. Catherine would slowly start to push their way back into the contest in the third quarter. The Wildcats would cut the lead to eight points, but Gustavus would continue to answer the call, pushing its lead to 54-43 heading to the final quarter.
After the Black and Gold nabbed the first basket of the fourth to go up 13, St. Kate’s would go on its run to make it a game. They would go on a 18-5 run, going 7-for-10 from the 8:21 to the 3:29 mark to even the game at 61. With the game even, Rorman would take over the next two possessions scoring back-to-back buckets to push Gustavus ahead by four. After a Wildcat free throw with a minute and a half left to cut the Gustie lead to one possession, Gonsorowski would knock down a jumper push the score to 67-62. St. Catherine made a three with 35 seconds remaining, but Gustavus would get a shot late in the shot clock on their ensuing possession and St. Kate’s couldn’t knock down the game-tying shot at the buzzer.
Rorman led the Gusties with 19 points, while Sanders added 16 off the bench to go along a team-best six rebounds. Gonsorowski was the lone other Gustavus player scoring in double figures as she contributed 11.
Gustavus is next in action Saturday when they host Bethel for a 3 p.m. contest.