ST. PETER, MINN. – It's playoff time! Four months of practice, lifting, conditioning and yes, games, have all led to this for the St. Catherine University basketball team. The Wildcats will competed in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) postseason tournament for the second consecutive season and will take on Gustavus Adolphus College in the opening round.
With their win over Augsburg University last Wednesday and loss to Gustavus Saturday, the Wildcats clinched the No. 6 seed in the MIAC playoffs. As a reward, St. Kate's will face the Gusties at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, February 20 in St. Peter, Minnesota, marking the third time this season the team will face off against Gustavus.
Tickets for the quarterfinal game, and throughout the conference tournament, cost $8 for adults and $3 for children and 2017-18 MIAC passes will be accepted as well. For those unable to attend in person,
live stats and
video will be available during the game and score updates will be made on St. Kate's official Twitter page (@stkateswildcats). More information can be found on the
2017-18 MIAC Basketball Championship page.
Here are the five things to know before Tuesday's playoff action:
3rd – This is just the third MIAC playoff appearance for the Wildcats in program history. St. Kate's qualified for the conference tournament for the first time in program history in 2009-10 and made its second appearance last season in 2016-17.
3 – The Wildcats playoff appearance is significant in many ways, as it's just the first time in program history they've made back-to-back appearances in the conference tournament. More impressively, St. Kate's achieved the feet with a constantly changing starting line up. Throughout the course of the season, the Wildcats lost
Audra Clark (Kenyon, Minn. / Kenyon-Wanamingo),
Danica Cambrice (Minneapolis, Minn. / St. Croix Lutheran) and
Alexis Garcia (Minnetonka, Minn. / Hopkins) to injury.
30.7 – In fact, only one student-athlete has played and started in all 25 games for St. Kate's this season: sophomore forward
Jackie Radford (St. Paul, Minn. / Cretin-Derham Hall). The team's most consistent player has averaged 30.7 minutes per game this season, No. 8 in the MIAC.
Meg Clark (Kenyon, Minn. / Kenyon-Wanamingo) also played in all 25 games this season but started 24.
25.0 – Cambrice won her second MIAC Athlete-of-the-Week honor after another outstanding and historic performance for the Wildcats. In St. Kate's MIAC playoff clinching win over Augsburg on Wednesday, the sophomore led all scorers with 30 points, becoming the first player in program history to score 30+ points three times in a single season. She added 20 points in a loss to Gustavus on Saturday, meaning she scored in double-digits 14 of 15 games this season.
53 – The Wildcats are trying to turn the tides against the Gusties this weekend, as they lost both games to the No. 3 seed during the regular season. In two games, St. Kate's scored an average of 53 points against Gustavus, including a 67-40 loss in early January and a 77-66 loss this past weekend.
