St. Paul, Minn. -- MIAC Basketball returned to the Butler Center Saturday afternoon with the visiting Hamline Pipers defeating the Wildcats by a final score of 56-43.  The Wildcats did a nice job defending the potent Pipers (who came in with an average of 77.5 points per game), but offensively, St. Kate's struggled, shooting only 31.5% from the field. The leading scorer for St. Kates was Rachel Randleman, who scored 9 in the game, hitting three 3-pointers.

After the tipoff, Hamline jumped out to a 14-2 lead.  They started the second quarter with the same 12-point cushion, but St. Kate's cut it to 7 points with just under 4 minutes left in the half.  At the break, 8 points separated the teams.

In the opening minutes of the 3^rd quarter, Hamline pushed their lead to a maximum of 16, before the Wildcats chipped it back down to single digits by the end of the period.  St. Kate's made it even more interesting in the final frame, when Maddie Young hit a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 5 points with 9-minutes left. But Hamline scored the next 9 points and never looked back.

Karis Zezza and Greta Schimnowski each contributed 7 points for St. Kate's, whose next game is at Carleton on November 22^nd.