ST. PETER, MINN. – The St. Catherine University basketball team has a strong history in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) playoffs. To this day, the Wildcats are the only No. 6 seed in tournament history to upset the No. 3 seed in the quarterfinal round of the conference tournament. On Tuesday, St. Kate's was hoping history would repeat itself in its opening round game at Gustavus Adolphus College. Sadly, that was not the case, as the Gusties beat the Wildcats by a final score of 65-38.
It was a tale of two halves for St. Kate's. The Wildcats did not get off to the start they were hoping for in the first half, as they were held to just 11 points in the initial 20 minutes of play. Danica Cambrice (Minneapolis, Minn. / St/ Croix Lutheran) was the team's leading scorer as she scored nine of the team's 11 first half points on 3-5 shooting from the floor. Jackie Radford (St. Paul, Minn. / Cretin-Derham Hall) and Bailee Sillman (Chippewa Falls, Wis. / Chippewa Falls) combined to score the team's other two first half points.
Unfortunately, things were going equally as wrong for St. Kate's on the defensive end of the court as the offensive end. The Wildcats game plan was to hold the Gusties main scorers, Mikayla Miller and Miranda Rice, to under 10 points each in the first half. Sadly, the game plan was not properly executed. While St. Kate's defense managed to hold Rice to just six first half points, Miller went off for 13 to give Gustavus a 33-11 lead at the half.
Things went much better in the third quarter, as the Wildcats matched the Gusties basket for basket through the first six minutes. However, too much damage had already been done for St. Kate's to really make a dent in Gustavus' lead. The Wildcats scored 11 points, but so did the Gusties, and the home team led 49-34 at the end of the third quarter.
St. Kate's managed to score a game-high 15 points in the fourth and final quarter but it wasn't enough to cut into the Gustavus lead. Even Meg Clark (Kenyon, Minn. / Kenyon-Wanamingo) and Mackenzie Dettman (Hutchinson, Minn. / Hutchinson) final two baskets in the dwindling seconds weren't enough to pull the Wildcats within 10, as the Gusties ended St. Kate's miraculous season with a 65-38 victory.
Cambrice was the team's leading scorer, as she tallied 16 points in the loss while Radford added six. Clark ended her Wildcat career with four points and five rebounds in nearly a full game of work.
With the loss, St. Kate's concludes the season with a12-14 record and an 8-10 mark in MIAC play. The Wildcats still have plenty to be proud of, as they qualified for the conference tournament in back-to-back seasons for the first time in program history. Cambrice ends the season as the team's leading scorer and ranked second in the MIAC in points per game and shooting percentage during the regular season. Radford ranked in the top-10 in all four rebounding categories and steals, while Clark ranked in the top-15 in offensive rebounds and assists.
