ST. PAUL, MINN. – All season long, the St. Catherine University basketball team has shown its one of the toughest teams to beat in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC). In fact, the Wildcats have played some of their best games of the season against the top teams in the conference. That trend continued on Saturday, when St. Kate's took on its rival the University of St. Thomas. Despite leading for the majority of the first half, the Wildcats were unable to close out the victory, falling to the No. 3 Tommies by a score of 62-53.

St. Kate's held St. Thomas to its second-lowest point total of the season and held the Tommie scorers well below their season average in points. In fact, it was the Wildcats who had the hot hand to open the game as they never trailed in the first quarter. Kennedy Jennings (Grimes, Iowa / Dallas Center-Grimes) opened the game with a layup under the basket to set the tone for St. Kate's. While the Tommies did manage to tie the score shortly after, the Wildcats made sure it was the only tie, as the team went on a 7-0 run to end the quarter with a 14-7 lead.

St. Kate's continued to hold the lead for most of the second quarter as well, thanks to stingy play on defense. However, any time St. Thomas managed to cut into the lead with a basket, the Wildcat shooters were there to extend the lead with a timely basket. With the game tied 16-16, Alexis Garcia (Minnetonka, Minn. / Hopkins) took a pass from Mari Lee (Dawson, Minn. / Dawson-Boyd) under the basket and put it through the hoop, giving St. Kate's an 18-16 lead. That seemed to ignite St. Kate's offense, as the team went on a five point scoring run, extending the lead to 23-16 with four minutes remaining in the half.

Unfortunately, the Wildcat shooters cooled off in those final four minutes right as the Tommies started to get hot. St. Thomas went on to score 11 points in the final four minutes of the quarter while St. Kate's only scored four, and the team's entered halftime in a 27-27 tie.

From that point on, the Wildcats and Tommies traded the lead for the majority of the third quarter. In fact, there were seven total lead changes in the third quarter, the highest total of the game, as neither team was able to jump out to a substantial lead. However, St. Thomas did start to find its rhythm on offense and held a slim 44-41 lead over St. Kate's at the end of the quarter.

An upset was still within the realm of possibility for the Wildcats through the majority of the fourth quarter. Lee eventually helped St. Kate's retake the lead at 45-44 after making a huge layup with seven minutes remaining in the game. Once again, the two teams were back to trading the lead back and forth. Unfortunately, a two-minute dry spell doomed the Wildcats in the end. While the Tommies continued to make baskets, St. Kate's shooters were unable to score, and St. Thomas eventually jumped out to a 54-47 lead.

With under a minute and a half remaining, the Wildcat did manage to cut the Tommie lead down to five points, thanks to a layup by Jennings. Unfortunately, the team was then forced to resort to free throws to try and pull off the upset of undefeated St. Thomas. Sadly, the Tommies did not miss their free throws, and even LaShay Holt's (Minneapolis, Minn. / Humboldt) two free throws in the final seconds weren't enough to bring St. Kate's within striking distance of the St. Thomas lead, resulting in the 62-53 loss.

Junior guard Audra Clark (Kenyon, Minn. / Kenyon-Wanamingo) was the team's leading scorer in the loss, with 13 points. Holt was held to her second lowest point total of the season with eight while Lee and Jennings each added seven.

With the loss, St. Kate's overall record falls to 13-8 and the team now holds a 7-7 record in MIAC play. The Wildcats will return to the court on Wednesday when they host the Concordia College Cobbers at 7 p.m. in the Butler Center Gym.