ST. PAUL, Minn. - The St. Catherine University basketball team picked up a crucial Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) victory over the visiting College of Saint Benedict Bennies on Wednesday night in front of an electric student section at
Butler Center. The Wildcats sailed past the Bennies with a 60-47 victory sweeping the conference opponent this season.
Jackie Radford had a team-high 13 points, six rebounds and five assists shooting 50 percent from the field. Rookie
Cierra Ahlf and senior
Emma Nelson both pitched in ten points while senior
Danica Cambrice added eight. Nelson shot 5 for 7 off the bench playing over 23 minutes on Wednesday night while also grabbing three boards, one assist, and two blocks. First-year
Bree Glynn had a career-high ten rebounds against the Bennies adding seven points in the win.
As a team, St. Catherine led Saint Benedict through the first quarter but gave up the lead in the middle of the second quarter. The Wildcats found themselves down by seven after the Bennies went on an 8-0 run with 6:51 to play in the half. Cambrice got the Wildcats back on track though just under five minutes adding four points before Nelson's jumper gave St. Catherine the lead again.
Coming out of the half with a four-point lead, St. Catherine added just nine points to their overall total in the third quarter. They ran away with the game however in the fourth quarter as they built an 18-point gap on the scoreboard with three minutes to play. Overall, St. Kate's shot 42 percent from the field and 70 percent from the free-throw line with 20 points off the bench.
St. Catherine is home again on Saturday hosting Carleton College at 3 p.m. on senior day. The St. Catherine athletic department will also be honoring the 2020 Hall of Fame Class who is being inducted as the seventh overall class on Saturday afternoon.
As it stands after today's victory, St. Catherine is in a three-way tie in fifth place with one regular-season game on the schedule. The tie is at 9-10 with Concordia College and Hamline University who the Wildcats split games with earlier this season. The Cobbers and Pipers play each other on Saturday to break the three-way tie and leave St. Catherine tied with the winner pending a victory over Carleton.
