ST. PETER, Minn. -- The Wildcats faced off against the nationally ranked Gusties on Wednesday. The first half was closely contested, but Gustavus pulled away late in the third quarter and finished with a 14-point victory. Sam Orth led the Wildcats in scoring with 13. Greta Schimnowski scored 12, going 4 of 9 from distance. Bree Glynn had 12 points and 8 rebounds.

Both teams started slowly: they tried to run their half-court offenses without much success. When Kaylee Miron hit on a drive to the basket halfway through the first quarter, the score was just 4-2, favor of St. Kate's. On the Wildcats' next possession, Greta Schimnowski hit a step-back three to make it a five-point lead. But the Gusties quickly came back and managed to finish the first frame up 18-16. On the opening possession of the second, Bree Glynn converted a traditional 3-point play to reclaim the lead for the visitors. Both teams continued to play aggressive defense, and that led to a combined 21 turnovers in the half and many fouls. Overall, the second quarter was played evenly, with each team adding 10 points to their total, so that Gustavus went into the break up 28-26.

Scorers stated finding their strokes early in the third.  Greta Schimnowski hit on back-to-back threes, and St. Kate's was only down by a point: 32-33.  Gustavus tried full court pressure, but the Wildcats broke it, and when Emme Golembiewski scored with less than 5 minutes to go in the quarter, in was still a one-possession game. However, in the last three minutes of the third the Gusties outscored the Wildcats 14-5, to go up 56-43.  Halfway through the fourth, a Bree Glynn basket after a nice Karis Zezza drive-and-dish brought down the margin to single digits. But aside from a Sam Orth jumper, the rest of the scoring came from Gustavus.

The Wildcats travel to Augsburg for their next game; it will be Wednesday at 7 pm.