NORTHFIELD, Minn. – Keegan Mulvihill scored a career-high 20 points on her Senior Night and Rachel Kelly added a game-high 22 as the St. Olaf College women's basketball team fell 68-64 to St. Catherine University in its first game in nearly 13 months on Tuesday evening at Skoglund Center.

Mulvihill shot 5-for-9 from behind the arc on the highest-scoring night of her career to date, while Kelly was 7-for-10 from the field and 7-for-7 from the free-throw line for St. Olaf (0-1). St. Kate's (1-0) used a balanced scoring attack with four in double figures to pick up the win.

The game was St. Olaf's first under first-year head coach Kelly Mahlum and the team's first contest since a 68-66 win over Macalester on Feb. 22, 2020.

The Wildcats jumped out to an early 7-2 lead three minutes into the game and shot 6-for-10 from the field to take a 16-11 lead after 10 minutes. St. Kate's led by as many as eight in the second quarter and was up 26-19 with 2:28 remaining in the opening half until three late free throws by Mulvihill helped trim the visitors' lead to four, 28-24, at the half.

Mulvihill was 3-for-5 from behind the arc and scored 14 of St. Olaf's 24 points in the first half. No other scorer had more than five points before the break.

The Oles climbed to within one on two occasions in the third quarter before the Wildcats went back up by seven, 41-34, with 1:55 remaining. Mulvihill connected two more three-pointers in the final 1:01 of the third quarter to keep St. Olaf within three, 43-40, after three quarters.

St. Kate's started the fourth quarter on a 10-0 run to take its largest lead of the game at 53-40 with 5:50 on the clock. Still down by 10 with a little over two minutes left, the Oles used a quick 6-0 run to make it a four-point game with 1:07 to go after a fast-break layup by K'Lynn Lewis.

After the Wildcats got a basket from Kassidy Jenkins out of a timeout, Lewis sank a three-pointer to make it a one-possession game, 65-62, with 25 seconds remaining. A putback by Kelly with eight seconds left got St. Olaf within two, 66-64, but Mackenzie Kurczek drained a pair of free throws with four seconds to go to seal the win for St. Kate's.

Brooke Torvik made all four of her shots from the field and was 6-for-9 at the free-throw line to score a team-high 14 points for the Wildcats. Kurczek added 11 points and eight rebounds, while Bree Glynn and Jenkins scored 10 apiece.

The same two teams are scheduled to play again on Wednesday, March 24 in St. Paul at 7 p.m.