ST. PAUL, MINN. - The St. Catherine University basketball team has always played the top teams in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) well, especially in the last two seasons. That trend continued, as the Wildcats took on the No. 7 team in the country, the University of St. Thomas, Saturday. Despite a hard fought battle, St. Kate's ultimately fell to the Tommies by a final score of 79-46.
 
The Wildcats hung with St. Thomas through the first five minutes and trailed by as few as four points in the opening quarter. Unfortunately, the Tommies were unstoppable from three-point range. Even against St. Kate's stingy defense, St. Thomas shot 50% from behind the arc, allowing the nationally ranked team to hold a 25-12 lead over the Wildcats after the first quarter.
 
Things didn't go better for St. Kate's in the second quarter, as it was held to just nine points in 10 minutes of play. Danica Cambrice (St. Paul, Minn. / St. Croix Lutheran) was the Wildcats top scorer in the first half of play, as she scored eight of St. Kate's 21 first half points. Morgan Kurth (Hutchinson, Minn. / Hutchinson) added three while Jackie Radford (St. Paul, Minn. / Cretin Derham-Hall) and Meg Clark (Kenyon, Minn. / Kenyon-Wanamingo) each scored a basket for the Wildcats in the first half.
 
Sadly, the Tommies still held a substantial 50-21 lead over St. Kate's at the half, but the Wildcats weren't about to back down in the second half of play. St. Kate's continued to battle for points and rebounds in the final 20 minutes of the game and eventually outscored St. Thomas 15-11 in the fourth and final quarter. Unfortunately, the late scoring surge wasn't enough, as the Wildcats eventually fell by a final score of 79-46.
 
Cambrice was St. Kate's top scorer of the afternoon, scoring a team leading 13 points. She also led in rebounds, as she pulled in seven boards in 24 minutes of play.
 
With the loss, the Wildcats overall record falls to 3-5 and they are now 0-3 in MIAC play. St. Kate's will return to the court on December 16 when it hosts the University of Wisconsin-River Falls at 3 p.m.