NORTHFIELD, MINN. – Back in early December, the St. Catherine University basketball team lost one of its most disappointing games of the 2017-18 season. The Wildcats opened Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) play with a 61-56 loss to Carleton College at home, and also lost senior guard Audra Clark (Kenyon, Minn. / Kenyon-Wanamingo) for the season in the process. On Saturday, St. Kate's was able to avenge its early MIAC loss with a 64-61 victory over the Knights.
If Clark is the injured Tony Stark, recovering from his latest crash, Alexis Garcia (Minnetonka, Minn. / Hopkins) was Captain America Saturday afternoon, scoring a team-leading 29 points in the victory. In a tight-knit first half, Garcia scored a team-leading 13 points while Meg Clark (Kenyon, Minn. / Kenyon-Wanamingo) added nine of her own after shooting 4-8 from the floor.
However, despite strong shooting from the two seniors, the Wildcats were still deadlocked in a tight and highly contested game with Carleton. The Knights outscored St. Kate's 15-14 in the first quarter before Garcia and Clark helped the Wildcats score 17 points in the second, allowing the team to hold a 31-30 lead at the half.
St. Kate's and Carleton continued to trade the lead in the third quarter. In the first five minutes, there were seven lead changes between the two teams, and neither the Wildcats nor the Knights led by more than four points in that time. That all changed, however, with under two minutes remaining in the quarter. Garcia and first year Morgan Kurth (Hutchinson, Minn. / Hutchinson) scored six unanswered points for St. Kate's to give the team a 48-42 lead over Carleton. The Knights, though, scored three points of their own in the final 30 seconds of the third quarter, resulting in a 48-45 Wildcat lead entering the final 10 minutes of regulation.
The final 10 minutes of play were certainly heart attack inducing, particularly for St. Kate's fans. Every time the Wildcats jumped out to a substantial lead, Carleton would come storming back and cut it to two or three points. With 5:18 remaining in regulation, Garcia sunk two free throws to give St. Kate's its most substantial lead of the game, 59-52. However, the Knights slowly whittled the Wildcats lead back down to three points and were within striking distance. With 16 seconds remaining in the game, Carleton's Annie Hamilton sunk two free throws, and St. Kate's led by just one point 61-60.
The Wildcat Avengers, though, made their last possession count. After Hamilton made both free throws, St. Kate's called a 30 second time out to advance the ball to mid court. Out of the time out, Kurth hit a big time layup thanks to a perfect pass from Jackie Radford (St. Paul, Minn. / Cretin-Derham Hall) to clinch the 64-61 win for the Wildcats.
Garcia was the team's leading scorer and leading rebounder, tallying 29 total points and pulling in eight rebounds in the victory.
With the win, St. Kate's overall record improves to 8-11 and the team is 4-8 in MIAC play. The Wildcats will return to the court on Wednesday, January 31 when they take on Saint Mary's University at 7 p.m. in Winona, Minnesota.
