NORTHFIELD, MINN. – The past two weeks have been almost magical for the St. Catherine University basketball team. The team has gone 4-0 in their last four game and is on a three-game win streak against Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) opponents. Saturday afternoon, though, the Wildcats hit the high note, ending their season with a 77-75 win over St. Olaf College for their fourteenth overall and eighth conference win of the 2015-16 season.


The Wildcats fifth consecutive win was not easy to come by, as the game was hotly contested from top off. St. Olaf's defense held St. Kate's to just 15 first quarter points to take a 20-15 lead after the first ten minutes of play. Junior LaShay Holt (Minneapolis, Minn. / Humboldt) opened the second quarter with a 3-point basket to cut the Oles lead to 20-18, but it wasn't enough to jump start the Wildcat offense. St. Olaf went on a 7-0 run after Holt's three-pointer, but St. Kate's wasn't out for the count yet. The Wildcats went on their own 6-0 run to tie the score at 27 behind three straight 3s from Holt and senior Shauna Horsch (Inver Grove Heights, Minn. / Simley). In fact, the Wildcats three-point shooting was on point in the first half, as they shot 64.8% from behind the arc in the first 20 minutes of the game.

Despite their hot shooting, St. Kate's and St. Olaf were deadlocked 35-35 at the end of the second quarter. Coming out of halftime, the Wildcats continued to have the hot hand from beyond the arc. Alexis Garcia (Minnetonka, Minn. / Hopkins) and Horsch made back-to-back threes to give St. Kate's a 43-38 lead two minutes into the third quarter. The Oles, though, would not back down, and no team led by more than five points for the rest of the third quarter.

Once again, St. Olaf was the first team to score in the fourth quarter and went on a quick 4-0 scoring run to take a 64-60 lead. That was when Holt and Audra Clark (Kenyon, Minn. / Kenyon-Wanamingo) took over for the Wildcats. The two guards combined for 10 points from inside the paint and helped the Wildcats take a 72-68 fourth quarter lead with under three minutes remaining in the game.

Fouls, though, gave the Oles multiple chances to tie the lead. With two minutes left, the two teams were deadlocked at 75, and neither team was able to score a basket. The Wildcats made two huge offensive stops with under a minute remaining, which gave them a chance to take the lead with 41 seconds remaining in the game. Holt missed the three point shot, but a foul by St. Olaf's Woo Bandel gave the Wildcats one more shot with 11 seconds remaining.

Mari Lee (Dawson, Minn. / Dawson-Boyd) was St. Kate's hero. With just seconds left in regulation, the junior forward scored under the basket off a pass from Clark to give the Wildcats the 77-75 lead. With three seconds left, St. Olaf called a thirty second time out to advance the ball and give the team one more chance to tie or take the lead. Coming out of the time out, St. Kate's defense put up a wall and forced one final Ole turnover to make the 77-75 lead a final score.

Holt magical numbers against the Oles continued. The junior ended the game with 32 points and six rebounds, which was only her second highest scoring game of the season. Holt scored 33 points against St. Olaf earlier this season.

Horsch ended her collegiate career with 17 total points after scoring 11 in the first half. She was 6-10 from the floor and 5-7 from beyond the 3-point line.

The Wildcats finish the season with an overall record of 14-11 and an 8-10 record in MIAC play. It is the first time St. Kate's finished the regular season with a record above .500 since the team went 15-11 during the 2008-09 season. It is also the winningest season for the Wildcats under Sean Pinkerton, and their best finish in the MIAC since he took over the program four years ago. The Wildcats are eighth in the conference standings after finishing in eleventh last season.
 
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