ST. JOSEPH, MINN. – The St. Catherine University basketball team has been on a roll since the start of the second half of the season. The Wildcats have played some of their best basketball of the year in the last three games, which included at least one Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) win. Unfortunately, St. Kate's hit a bit of a skid Wednesday evening as it was unable to stop the conference's top team the College of Saint Benedict, falling by a final score of 75-47.  

The Wildcats tried to hang with the Blazers, but the home team was hot offensively early in the competition. Saint Ben's Chelsey Guetter and Sidney Schiffler were virtually unstoppable, as they scored a combined 25 points for the Blazers in the first two quarters. Sadly, St. Kate's did not have an answer, as Saint Ben's stalwart defense held reigning MIAC Athlete-of-the-Week Alexis Garcia (Minnetonka, Minn. / Hopkins) and Meg Clark (Kenyon, Minn. / Kenyon-Wanamingo) to just nine points combined in the first and second quarters, resulting in a 46-21 Blazer lead at the half.

Despite being down by 20-plus points, the Wildcats battled in the second half. Unfortunately, they never were quite able to catch Saint Ben's, as the Blazers continued to score in the final 20 minutes of play. Still, St. Kate's managed to cut Saint Ben's lead to 57-32 at the end of the third quarter and continued to fight in the fourth quarter. Ashley Fosness (Britton, S.D. / Britton-Hecla) erupted for a career-high 12 points in the loss, while fellow freshman Morgan Kurth (Hutchinson, Minn. / Hutchinson) added nine. Sadly, the efforts of the two first years wasn't enough, as the Wildcats ultimately fell by a final score of 75-47.  

Fosness was the team's leading scorer with 12 points, while Kurth added nine in the loss. Clark was the team's leading rebounder with seven total rebounds.

With the loss, St. Kate's overall record falls to 6-8, and the team is now 2-5 in MIAC play. The Wildcats will return to competition on Saturday, when they take on Hamline University at 3 p.m. in Hutton Arena in St. Paul, Minnesota.