MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. – When it mattered most, the St. Catherine University basketball team has taken care of business on the court.
On Wednesday, that trend continued.
The Wildcats earned, perhaps, their best win of the season, as they beat Augsburg University on the road by a score of 68-59. More importantly, St. Kate's moved into sole possession of sixth place in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) standings, putting the team in playoff position with one game remaining in the regular season.
As always, it was a tight-knight game between the Wildcats and Auggies, as one would expect in what was essentially a playoff-elimination game. However, it was Augsburg that had the early advantage, as the home team held a 22-18 lead at the end of the first quarter. In fact, the Auggies led by as many as seven points in the first quarter, jumping ahead 11-4, as they scored six-consecutive points on St. Kate's turnovers.
The Wildcats, though, righted the ship quickly and closed the gap to 22-18 by the end of the first quarter. St. Kate's then outscored Augsburg 19-12 in the second quarter and held a 37-33 lead at the half. Danica Cambrice (St. Paul, Minn. / St. Croix Lutheran) was a huge part of the Wildcats first half comeback, as she scored a team-leading 17 points in the first 20 minutes of play.
However, St. Kate's defense struggled to stop Auggie top scorer Tamira McLemore in the first half of play. The guard shot .500 from the floor in the first and second quarters, including a 1-3 mark from behind the mark, and led Augsburg with 11 first-half points. That all changed in the second half of the game. The Wildcats stingy defense held McLemore to a season-low seven points in the second half while holding the Auggie team to .250 shooting from the floor.
While St. Kate's defense was holding Augsburg at bay, the offense started going off. After falling behind 41-40 two minutes into the third quarter, St. Kate's, more specifically Cambrice, scored eight unanswered points to take a 48-41 lead over the Auggies with 3:45 remaining in the third quarter.
Aiza Williams put Augsburg right back in the game, as she scored five unanswered points of her own in a 1:45 time span to cut the Wildcats lead to 50-48 with exactly two minutes remaining in the third quarter. Ashley Fosness (Britton, S.D. / Britton-Hecla) kept the Auggies from getting any closer, though, as she made three of four free throws in the following minute to boost St. Kate's lead to 53-48 at the end of the third quarter.
After Fosness drained the three free throws, the Wildcats never relinquished their four point lead. Although Augsburg managed to get within four of St. Kate's 59-55 lead, it was the closest the home team would come in the final 10 minutes of play. The Wildcats free throw shooting was on point, as the team drained nine free throws in the final three minutes to clinch the 68-59 MIAC victory.
Cambrice was the team's leading scorer in the game, as she scored 30 points for the second straight game, marking the first time in program history a student-athlete recorded back-to-back 30 points games. Jackie Radford (St. Paul, Minn. / Cretin-Derham Hall) added 13 points and pulled in seven rebounds, while Morgan Kurth (Hutchinson, Minn. / Hutchinson) added eight points, half of which she scored in the second half.
With the win, St. Kate's overall record improved to 12-12 and the team is now 8-9 in MIAC play. More importantly, the Wildcats move into sixth place in the MIAC conference standings and are in perfect position to earn their second straight berth to the MIAC Playoffs.
St. Kate's will play in its final regular season home game of the season on Saturday when it hosts Gustavus Adolphus College at 3 p.m. in the Butler Center Gym.
