The St. Catherine University basketball team may have opened the season with a hot six-win start, but was searching for a way to build upon that success in the new year as Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) reopened. Unfortunately, the Wildcat losing streak extended to three-straight as they struggled to shoot well in a 74-54 loss to Augsburg College Saturday afternoon in the Butler Center. 

For the second time this season, the Wildcats made just 16 field goals shooting 29.6 percent as a team while allowing the Auggies to go 45.8 percent from the field. The Wildcats managed to out-rebound their opponent 40-37, but they couldn't slow down the Auggies inside as they scored 40 points in the paint. Augsburg also scored 12 points on fastbreak opportunities as opposed to just six points. 

The first half opened in favor of the Wildcats who took a five-point lead with 12:23 remaining in the opening 20 minutes. The two teams chipped away at each other until the Auggies went on a 10-0 run to take a nine-point lead with 3:29 remaining before holiding a 42-32 lead at the break. 

The Auggies then opened the second half with a 10-0 run over 4:42 time period to push their lead to 20 and never looked back in route to handing the Wildcats their fifth loss of the season. 

For the second game in a row, Mari Lee (Dawson, Minn./Dawson-Boyd) led the Wildcat offense with 14 points. She went 5-for-8 from the field adding four points from the charity stripe. She also collected seven rebounds, two assists and the team's only blocks with two. 

LaShay Holt (Minneapolis, Minn./Humboldt) was held to her first single-digit scoring day since November with just eight points, but she led the team with 10 rebounds to maintain her league-leading rebounding average for the season. She also had a team-best six assists and five steals. 

Audra Clark (Kenyon, Minn./Kenyon-Wanamingo) scored seven points while also adding three rebounds, two steals and an assist. Sister Meg Clark (Kenyon, Minn./Kenyon-Wanamingo) had a seven points after going 5-of-6 from the free throw line. She also had two rebounds and an assist. 

Shauna Horsch (Inver Grove Heights, Minn./Simley) and Mary Neumann (Duluth, Minn./Hermantown) added to the Wildcats' three-point shooting with Horsch hitting one to add to her seven-point performance, while Neumann came off the bench to go 2-for-3 from beyond the arc for six points. 

The Auggies had four players reach double-digits in scoring with Jessica Lillquist leading the way with 19 points. Abby Luger had a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Bridget Bednar scored 16 points and Jenna Orth added 10. 

The Wildcats hit the road to take on Carleton College Wednesday evening for a 7 p.m. contest in Northfield, Minnesota. 

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