ST. PAUL, MINN. – Coming off an epic win over the University of Wisconsin-Superior, the St. Catherine University basketball team returned to the court hungry for its fourth-consecutive win Wednesday night when the team hosted Carleton College in the Butler Center Gymnasium.  For the Wildcats, their fourth consecutive win over the Knights was extra sweet, as the 65-62 victory gave the team their third Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) win of the season.

The game was incredibly physical from the start, as two styles of play were clearly being used by the two teams. St. Kate's game plan revolved around its quick guards and athletic forwards, while Carleton was depending on its big presence inside with aggressive and physical forwards in the paint. In the first quarter, it was the Knights physical play that dominated the game. The visitors held the Wildcats to their lowest first-quarter point total of the season, allowing St. Kate's to score just 13 points in the opening 10 minutes of play. On the flip side, Carleton managed to break through the Wildcats usually stingy defense, taking an 18-13 lead in the first quarter of play.

However, slowly but surely in the second quarter, St. Kate's offense and defense started working together, forcing turnovers and generating offensive opportunities that allowed them to retake the lead. Twenty seconds into the quarter, senior guard LaShay Holt (Minneapolis, Minn. / Humboldt) swished a three-point basket off a pass from Danica Cambrice (Minneapolis, Minn. / St. Croix Lutheran), cutting the lead to 16-18. One minute later, Holt tied the score with a fast break layup, which seemed to spark two minutes of strong defensive play for the Wildcats. On Carleton's next offensive possession, senior forward Mari Lee (Dawson, Minn. / Dawson-Boyd) stole the ball, passed it up the court to Annie Schoeben (Brooklyn Park, Minn. / Osseo), who found a waiting Kennedy Jennings (Grimes, Iowa / Dallas Center-Grimes) under the basket to help St. Kate's take a two point 20-18 lead.

After the play, the Knights were forced to take a 30 second time out, but the Wildcats were the team to take advantage of the break. Nine seconds after Jennings' basket, Audra Clark (Kenyon, Minn. / Kenyon-Wanamingo) stripped Carleton forward Cece Leone and took the ball to the basket, extending St. Kate's lead to four with 7:30 remaining until halftime.

Unfortunately, cold shooting by the Wildcats and costly fouls allowed the Knights to score nine unanswered points, taking a 27-22 lead in under two minutes. However, a key three by Cambrice and a jumper from Holt tied the game at 27, and St. Kate's looked to take a 32-27 lead into halftime.

Sadly, Carleton managed to tie the game at 32 as the clock was running out, resulting in a tie at the end of the first half. When play resumed after the 15 minute intermission, the two teams traded the lead for the first three minutes of the third quarter. Eventually, the Wildcats were able to take a seven point lead thanks to key plays on both offense and defense. After the Knights took a three-point lead in the quarter, St. Kate's went on to score 10 unanswered points in three minutes, highlighted by two steals from Clark, layups from Cambrice and Schoeben and a huge three-pointer from Lee, giving the Wildcats a 46-39 lead.

After St. Kate's scoring binge, Carleton did manage to score a basket or two in the final three minutes of the quarter. Still, the Wildcats managed to hold on to its lead and entered the fourth and final quarter up 51-45. The Knights, though, managed to hold the hot hand in the final ten minutes of play, as they whittled St. Kate's lead to just one point with 6:48 remaining in the game.

Fortunately, the Wildcats free throw shooting came up big in the fourth quarter. After Carleton cut St. Kate's lead to 53-52 with a three-pointer from Leone, Holt drew a key foul and sunk both free throws, extending her team's lead back to three points. In the second half of the game, the Wildcats made 11 of 12 free throws, including 10 in the fourth quarter. Holt and Clark were St. Kate's lone free throw shooters in the final quarter of play and combined accounted for over half of the team's points Wednesday evening. Both of them were perfect in the final 17 seconds of play, which helped lift the Wildcats to its 65-62 victory.

Thanks to free throws, Clark was the team's leading scorer, with 23 points in 33 minutes of play. The night, however, belonged to Holt, who recorded her fifth double-double of the season, with 22 points and a team leading 11 rebounds. More impressively, the senior guard set the school record for career steals against Carleton. With her steal in the fourth quarter, Holt broke Natalie Lyzhoff's 11 year record and now has 211 steals in her career.

With the win, the Wildcats improve to 9-3 overall and are now 3-2 in MIAC play. The record is St. Kate's best through this point of the season in head coach Sean Pinkerton's tenure and the team's win streak is now at four games.

The Wildcats will return to the court on Saturday, when they travel to Winona, Minnesota to play Saint Mary's University in MIAC play. Tip off is scheduled for 3 p.m.