ST. PETER, Minn. – The Gustavus women’s basketball team hosts Coe College at 5 p.m. Friday in a non-conference game. The Gusties are 7-1 overall and 3-1 in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, while the Kohawks are 3-7 overall and 1-2 in the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
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THE SERIES
Friday’s game marks the first time Gustavus and Coe have face each other in their respective women’s basketball histories.
IN THE POLLS
D3hoops.com ranked Gustavus No. 16 in its preseason Top 25 poll and after starting the season 3-0 the Gusties moved up four spots to No. 12 in the Nov. 26 poll. Gustavus has since dropped to No. 17 in the Dec. 17 poll after losing its first game of the season to St. Thomas last week. The Tommies are two spots ahead of the Gusties at No. 15, while Tufts holds on to the No. 1 ranking.
ABOUT THE KOHAWKS
The Kohawks have dropped five of their last six games, most recently falling at Mount Mercy 70-60 on Tuesday. Jenna Lehman scored a season-high 24 points in the loss, marking the ninth time she led the team in scoring this season. Lehman leads the team with 16.7 points and 5.4 rebounds per game. Aleena Hobbs also averages double figures with 10.8 points per game. As a team, the Kohawks average 61.4 points per game and shoot 38.4 percent from the field.
LAST TIME OUT
The Gusties lost their first game of the season 74-66 to St. Thomas last Wednesday evening. The Tommies used a 29-11 advantage in the second quarter to create separation and fended off a second half comeback to secure the win in a match of nationally ranked teams.
The first quarter featured a back-and-forth affair to start before the Gusties scored 10 unanswered points to take a 16-10 advantage after the first 10 minutes. The home team increased their lead by nine in the first two minutes of the second frame, but that’s when the Tommies went on a 27-6 run to close out the half, taking a 39-27 advantage into the locker room.
After trading buckets to start the third quarter, the Gusties found a rhythm by scoring 12 unanswered points, fueled in large part by Mikayla Miller’s (Sr., Goodhue, Minn.) 10 points in that span, to take a 48-47 lead with 3:31 left in the frame. But that would be the home team’s last lead of the night as the Tommies finished the third quarter with an 11-5 run. Gustavus got within four points with 1:57 left in the game, but could not complete the comeback as St. Thomas made 5-of-6 free throws in the final 40 seconds to close out the game.
Miller led all scorers with 24 points on 7-of-18 shooting from the floor. She also made 8-of-10 free throws. Miranda Rice (Sr., Forest Lake, Minn.) added 14 points and Kendall Thompson (Jr., Eden Prairie, Minn.) contributed 11 points along with a career-high 11 rebounds. As a team, the Gusties shot 38.7 percent compared to 58.1 percent by the Tommies. The visitors also turned the ball over 19 times, but the Gusties were only able to generate 22 points off the takeaway.
POINT MILESTONE
Mikayla Miller scored 24 points in the loss against St. Thomas last week, surpassing Molly Geske (2008-12) for No. 3 on Gustavus’s all-time career scoring list. Miller now has 1,432 points and is 35 points shy of passing Bri Monahan (2003-07) for No. 2 in the record book. Jess Vadnais (2004-08) is the program record holder with 1,779 career points.