ST. PAUL, MINN. - The St. Catherine University basketball team had strong showing against top programs in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC), proving they can play with the top teams in the conference. After recent losses to MIAC co-leaders St. Thomas and Saint Mary's, the Wildcats were looking to get back in the win column when they hosted Augsburg College on Saturday. Unfortunately, that was not meant to be, as St. Kate's fell to the visiting Auggies 64-61.

The Wildcats got off to a fast start in the first quarter. After trailing 2-0 in the first minutes of the game, they rattled off 7 unanswered points to go up 7-2. Augsburg eventually was able to score, but St. Kate's continued to put the ball through the hoop. They stretched their lead to 13-6 before the Auggies ended the quarter with four unanswered points of their own.

At the start of the second quarter, it looked like St. Kate's had regained the momentum with Alexis Garcia's (Minnetonka, Minn./Hopkins) two-point jumper 24 seconds into the quarter.Unfortunately, the Augsburg offense went on a run of their own and held junior guard LaShay Holt to just four points, her lowest first half total of the season. Still, the Wildcats hung around and went into halftime with a 24-23 lead.

The third quarter was as back and forth as the first two, with neither team really able to gain all of the momentum. Whenever the Auggies would start to pull ahead, St. Kate's would come roaring back and either close the gap or take the lead. After the ninth tie of the game, though, at 39-39, Augsburg started to pull away, ending the third quarter with a 45-39 lead.

It was then that the Wildcats really came to life. Down 39-50 with the game seemingly out of reach, St. Kate's offense and defense surged the team forward. The Wildcats went on a 12-6 run and found themselves within striking distance in the final five minutes of the game. That was when the  three point shooting came to life. Audra Clark (Kenyon, Minn./Kenyon-Wanamingo) and Mari Lee (Dawson, Minn./Dawson-Boyd) both hit huge three-pointers with under two minutes to play. Clark's came at 1:52 to make the score 56-60, and Lee's came with under a minute to make the score 59-62. Sadly, it was not enough. Reigning MIAC Athlete-of-the-Week Maria Loughlin sunk two free throws with one second left, and Shauna Horsch's (Inver Grove Heights, Minn./Simley) final two free throws weren't enough to tie the game at 64.

Lee lead the team in scoring with 15 points on the day while Clark added 13 of her own. Despite her cold first half, Holt did go one to score 12 points and recorded the 17th double-double of her career with 12 rebounds on the day to match her 12 points.

St. Kate's will return to the court on Monday night when they host UW-Superior at 7 p,m. They will also host the College of Saint Benedict at the Butler Center Wednesday night before hitting the road to play Macalester on Saturday.

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