NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The St. Olaf College women's basketball team could not overcome a slow start in a 71-57 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) loss to Macalester College on Wednesday night at Skoglund Center.
Macalester (3-2, 1-1 MIAC) jumped out to an 11-2 lead in the first 2:35 and did not look back in the wire-to-wire win over St. Olaf (1-4, 0-2 MIAC). On a night where both teams were just 3-for-15 (20.0 percent) from behind the arc, the Scots' advantages of 36-26 in points in the paint and 18-8 in points off turnovers proved decisive.
Senior
Cayden Botten was an efficient 5-for-9 from the field, including going 2-for-3 from three-point range, on her way to a team- and season-high 12 points for St. Olaf, which got 10 points apiece from junior
Sophia Kormann and first year
Chloee Smith. Kormann went 6-for-8 at the free-throw line, while Smith pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds for her first collegiate double-double.
Petyon Starks shot 6-for-9 from the field and 5-for-7 at the charity stripe to score a game-high 17 points for Macalester. Katherine Norquist narrowly missed out on a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds, as 11 Scots scored in the game.
St. Olaf shot 60.0 percent (6-for-10) from the field in the opening quarter but committed nine turnovers that led to 10 Macalester points, as the visitors took a 22-14 lead after 10 minutes. Andrea Palmen scored the final five points of the Scots' 11-2 start to the game and Macalester led by as many as 11 four times in the opening quarter.
A jumper by junior
Ziling Zhen followed by a three-pointer by Botten in the first minute of the second quarter brought St. Olaf within three at 22-19, but Macalester answered with baskets on its next two possessions to push its lead back to seven. Botten added another three-pointer later in the quarter, but the Oles went into the halftime break down 35-26 after committing 14 first-half turnovers.
In the second half, St. Olaf could not get any closer than eight points, which came on a jumper by Botten with 6:21 to go that made it a 41-33 game. The Scots led by as many as 24 down the stretch before Smith scored eight points in the final 1:17 of the game for the Oles.
St. Olaf remains home to face Saint Mary's University on Saturday, Dec. 2 at 1 p.m.
