After winning a huge Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) contest agains Macalester College, the St. Catherine University basketball team has gone on a two-game losing streak and hoped it could find a way to end the skid against defending MIAC Champion Saint Mary's University in a road contest. Unfortunately, the Wildcats' streak extended to three after falling 80-70 to the Cardinals despite a close final minutes of the second half Wednesday evening in Winona, Minnesota.
The Wildcats posted one of their best shooting performances of the season finishing the game at 41.5 percent, but were edged out by a Cardinal team that shot 51.6 percent from the field and held a 46-35 advantage in rebounding. Despite commiting just 11 turnovers as opposed to 14 for the Cardinals, the Wildcats allowed their opponent to score 18 points off of turnovers while the Wildcats had just 14. The Cardinals also had 18 points off the bench with 16 from Michaela Meredith, while the Wildcats only had two.
In the first half, the Wildcats came out strong and held a four-point lead with 13:54 remaining at 14-10. Then, the Cardinals went on a 25-8 run over the next 11-plus minutes to take their largest lead of the game at 17 points with 1:56 remaining. The Wildcats finished with a 6-0 run to cut the Cardinal lead to 41-30 at the half.
The Wildcats then opened the second half scoring the first six points and managed to pull within three points of the Cardinals at two different points throughout the half. Then, with just 1:45 remaining the Wildcats were down just five points, but couldn't come up with a stop and allowed the Cardinals to pull away for their sixth conference win and 12th overall.
LaShay Holt (Minneapolis, Minn./Humboldt) came up in a big way for the Wildcats with her best performance of 2015 and was just one point shy of her career-best with a game-high 27 points. She shot an impressive 57.2 percent from the field going 12-of-21 and led the team in rebounds (11), assists (4) and steals (4). This was Holt's ninth double-double of the season and 12th of her career. She also committed just one turnover.
Mari Lee (Dawson, Minn./Dawson-Boyd) had a career-high 18 points going 7-of-14 from the field to contribute to the Wildcats' strong shooting night. She also went 4-for-4 from the free throw line to add to her sixth double-digit scoring game of the season. She was also second on the team with seven rebounds.
After failing to attempt a single shot in the first half,
Shauna Horsch (Inver Grove Heights, Minn./Simley) finished with a strong night going 3-for-6 from the field for 11 points which included the team's lone 3-point bucket. the junior finished her stat line with four rebounds, three assists and one steal.
Audra Clark (Kenyon, Minn./Kenyon-Wanamingo) added eight points, six rebounds and two assists to the team effort, while twin
Meg Clark (
Kenyon, Minn./Kenyon-Wanamingo) added four points, two assists, two steals and a rebound. First-year Molly O'Toole led the Cardinals with 19 points and 11 rebounds for the double-double, while five other players scored in double-digit figures.
With the loss, the Wildcats fall to 7-9 on the season and 2-7 in MIAC play. They return home Saturday for a MIAC rematch with Gustavus Adolphus College at 3 p.m. in the
Butler Center.
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