After ending a nine-game losing streak with a win over Macalester College Saturday, the St. Catherine University basketball team hoped to start a winning streak and play spoiler against a Hamline University squad that still had a chance to qualify for the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) playoffs with two games remaining. However, Audra Clark (Kenyon, Minn./Kenyon-Wanamingo) had different plans as she used a career-high night to help the Wildcats to a 74-66 victory in front of the home crowd for the last time this season Wednesday night at the Butler Center. 

For the third time in the last four games, Clark led the Wildcats in scoring and surpassed the 20-point mark. The first-year was solid beyond the arc going 3-for-5 to pour in her collegiate-best 23 points. She also chipped in five boards, three steals, two assists and a block to help the Wildcats end the Pipers' postseason dreams and bring the Wildcats to four conference wins on the season – the most in a single season since 2010-11 when the Wildcats finished 5-17 in MIAC contests. 

The Pipers opened the game taking the early lead, but the Wildcats pulled even just over five minutes in and then went on a 17-2 run over the next 9:16 tot ake a 15-point lead over the Pipers. The Wildcats then managed to keep the Pipers at a distance heading into halftime with a 31-17 lead. 

In the second half, the Wildcats eventually pushed their lead to as many as 17 with 12:19 remaining. The Pipers slowly began chipping away at the lead to pull within six with 38 seconds to play, but the Wildcats had an answer each time and pulled away for their ninth win of the season. 

Coming off her first collegiate triple-double, LaShay Holt (Minneapolis, Minn./Humboldt) managed to tally her 12th double-double of the season scoring 12 points and collecting a team-high 10 rebounds. She added to the Wildcats' 51 total rebounds which matches the school record for boards in a single game. The sophomore was a perfect 5-of-5 from the free throw line and had a game-high five assists. 

Kennedy Jennings (Grimes, Iowa/Des Moines) and Shauna Horsch (Inver Grove Heights, Minn./Simley) had identical numbers with each scoring 11 points after shooting 5-of-8 fromt he field. Jennings collected nine rebounds and had two assists, two blocks and a steal. Horsch added six boards, a game-high four steals, two assists and a block. 

Meg Clark (Kenyon, Minn./Kenyon-Wanamingo) scored in double digits for the second game in a row with 11 points after going 6-for-6 from the charity stripe. She also had six rebounds and three steals. Mari Lee (Dawson, Minn./Dawson-Boyd) matched Holt's 10 rebounds and added six points. 

Without the league's leading scorer in Jordan Sammons available for the Pipers, Emily Behrman stepped up as she shot 5-of-6 from 3-point range for a team-high 21 points. Alex Peterson had a double-double with 10 points and 11 boards, while Chelsey Bonsante added 16 points and reigning MIAC Athlete-of-the-Week Chloe Graves had 12 points. 

The Wildcats improve to 9-15 on the season and 4-13 in the MIAC. They will close out the year on the raod against St. Olaf College Saturday. The game is slated to begin at 3 p.m. in Northfield, Minnesota. 

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