ST. PAUL, Minn.---The St. Catherine University basketball team should have had some confidence heading into its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) contest with Macalester College after hanging with the top team in the league in Saint Mary's University Wednesday. If there was confidence for the Wildcats Saturday, it didn't show until it was too late in the fourth quarter when their comeback fell short in suffering a disappointing 64-55 loss to the Scots at the Butler Center. 

The Wildcats may have attempted more shots than the Scots, but they hit just 31 percent of those shots and allowed the Scots to explode offensively from beyond the arc – the Scots nailed 10-of-22. Despite forcing 24 Scot turnovers and converting 22 points off takeaways, the Scots held a 44-41 advantage in rebounds and took advantage of a plethora of fouls from the Wildcats with 20 points coming from the charity stripe. 

The game started off slow with the Scots taking a four-point 12-8 lead after the quarter. In the second quarter, the Wildcats scored the first four points to tie the score at 12-12 in the first 2:03. Then, the Scots started to slowly rebuild their lead and took a 26-20 advantage into the locker room at the half. 

In the second half, Leah Gray came to life for the Scots hitting two of her five 3-pointers to start an offensive surge that saw the Wildcats go down by as many as 16 with with 2:8 remaining in the quarter. Down 47-33 after three quarters of play, the Wildcats opened up the final quarter with a 14-2 run to pull within two points with 4:39 remaining. That was as close as they would come, though, as the Scots continued to use sharp perimeter shooting to hold off the Wildcats' comeback. 

The Clark twins dominated for the Wildcats with Audra Clark (Kenyon, Minn./Kenyon-Wanamingo) scoring a game-high 18 points, while Meg Clark (Kenyon, Minn./Kenyon-Wanamingo) tallied her second-straight double-digit outing with 15 points. Audra Clark tallied a team-high five assists and pulled in five rebounds. Meg Clark shot 7-of-13 from the field and also picked up a career-high six steals. 

Shauna Horsch (Inver Grove Heights, Minn./Simley) scored nine points and tallied six rebounds, two blocks and two steals. Mari Lee (Dawson, Minn./Dawson-Boyd) contributed a game-high three blocks, while LaShay Holt (Minneapolis, Minn./Humboldt) and Kennedy Jennings (Grimes, Iowa/Dallas Center-Grimes) contributed on the boards with nine and six, respectively. 

Gray led the Scots with 15 points – all off of her 5-of-6 performance from beyond the arc – and 11 rebounds for her first collegiate double-double effort. Regan Fruh and Vivi Gregorich each tallied 14 points and Lauren Clamage scored 12 points on a 3-of-7 day from 3-point range. 

The Wildcats have now lost three straight since defeating the University of St. Thomas on Dec. 12. They fall to 7-5 on the season and 2-4 in the MIAC. The Wildcats return to action Wednesday on the road for a 7 p.m. matchup against Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota. 

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