ST. PAUL, MINN. – The St. Catherine University basketball team already knew its fate entering Saturday's contest against the Gustavus Adolphus College Gusties. The Wildcats were already one of the six teams in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) postseason tournament and were simply looking for a big time upset over the Gusties to end the season on a high note and potentially clinch the No. 5 seed in the tournament. Unfortunately, that wasn't in the cards for St. Kate's, as it lost to Gustavus by a final score of 77-66.
It was a high paced first half of play, as the Wildcats and Gusties scored a combined 67 points in the opening 20 minutes. In fact, Gustavus tried to use pace of play to knock St. Kate's off its game, but the home team wasn't fooled. The Wildcats managed to hang with the Gusties for the majority of the first half thanks to outstanding offensive performances from Danica Cambrice (Minneapolis, Minn. / St. Croix Lutheran) and Jackie Radford (St. Paul, Minn. / Cretin-Derham Hall).
Unfortunately, the Gustavus offense went to another level late in the second quarter, as St. Kate's had no answer for Mikayla Miller and Miranda Rice. The two seniors helped the Gusties take a 37-27 lead over the Wildcats with 32 seconds remaining in the half. However, with 25 seconds left, Cambrice hit a big-time lay up then forced a Gustavus turnover to cut the lead to 37-30 at the half.
St. Kate's tried to whittle away at the Gusties lead in the third quarter, but turnovers proved too costly for the upstart team. Back-to-back turnovers by Meg Clark (Kenyon, Minn. / Kenyon-Wanamingo) and Ashley Fosness (Britton, S.D. / Britton-Hecla) led to a 46-33 Gustavus lead at 7:56 in the quarter. Even though the Wildcats managed to score six consecutive baskets and cut the lead down to 11 points, the team had no answer for Miller, who went on a 10 point scoring run on her own to buffer the Gustie lead to 62-43 by the end of the third quarter.
However, St. Kate's showed tenacity and heart in the final 10 minutes of play, as it slowly but surely whittled Gustavus' lead to the manageable 10 points. Radford scored six straight points for the Wildcats in the opening two minutes, including a beautiful three-point play in the early minutes, to cut the lead to 64-55 with 6:42 remaining in the game. Even though Miller and Rice managed to extend the lead back to 11 on free throw shooting, St. Kate's answered with back-to-back buckets from Cambrice and Radford, keeping within striking distance of Gustavus.
The Gusties managed to extend the lead back to 16 points with five minutes left in regulation, but the Wildcats were not about to lose to Gustavus by 20-plus points for the second time this season. A layup by Fosness cut the lead to 74-60 before free throws from Brooke Torvik (Rice, Minn. / Sauk-Rapids Rice) put St. Kate's within 12 points with three minutes remaining. From there, stingy defense and grit took over the Wildcats game plan, as Cambrice and Bailee Sillmann (Chippewa Falls, Wis. / Chippewa Falls) got St. Kate's within eight at 74-66.
Unfortunately, the Wildcats would not score another basket in the final 1:44 in regulation, while the Gusties went on to score three points, resulting in the 77-66 Gustavus victory.
Cambrice was the team's leading scorer, pouring in 20 points and pulling in eight rebounds, while Radford added 14 points and seven rebounds. Cambrice also tallied six steals, while Clark scored eight points in the final home game of her career.
With the loss, St. Kate's overall record falls to 12-13 and the team ends the regular season with an 8-10 mark in MIAC play. Despite the loss, though, the Wildcats still qualify for the No. 6 spot in the conference tournament and will take on, presumably, No. 3 Gustavus at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, February 20. More details will be available in the upcoming days.
