ST. PAUL, Minn. – The St. Olaf College women's basketball team was unable to get its offense going in a 64-39 road loss to St. Catherine University in Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) play on Saturday afternoon at Butler Center.
St. Kate's (14-6, 9-5 MIAC) held St. Olaf (3-16, 2-13 MIAC) to 11 points or fewer in all four quarters to finish off a sweep of the regular-season meetings between the two programs. The Wildcats shot just 34.4 percent (21-for-61) from the field in the game but limited the Oles to a 32.7 percent (16-for-49) clip.
Junior
Ziling Zhen was the lone double-digit scorer for St. Olaf with 10 points in the game. First year
Chloee Smith came up one point short of her third collegiate double-double with nine points, a game-high 11 rebounds, two steals, two blocked shots, and two steals. Junior
Paige Yagodinski scored all eight of her points in the opening half in her return to the court and grabbed four steals.
Maddie Young joined Zhen as the only double-figure scorers in the game with a team-high 10 points off the bench for St. Kate's, helping the Wildcats to a 35-12 advantage in bench scoring. Hattie Fox, who entered the game as one of the top-five scorers in the MIAC, had nine points on just 2-for-12 shooting, as 12 Wildcats scored in the win. St. Kate's turned 23 St. Olaf turnovers into a 23-2 advantage in points off turnovers.
A jumper by first year
Bree Wilkerson a minute in accounted for the lone points of the game in the first three minutes and gave St. Olaf what turned out to be its only lead of the game. St. Kate's scored the next nine points and held the Oles scoreless for nearly five minutes to go ahead 9-2. Trailing 12-4, St. Olaf went on a 7-0 run to get back within two, but the Wildcats scored the final points to take a 17-11 lead into the second quarter.
St. Kate's extended its lead to 29-19 at the half after limiting St. Olaf to eight points on 3-for-13 shooting in the second quarter. The Wildcats led by as many as 13 at 29-16 before Yagodinski hit her second three-pointer of the half with 15 seconds to go to make it a 10-point game. Seven Wildcats had between three and six points in the opening half.
A three-pointer by Smith followed by a layup by Zhen brought the Oles within seven at 31-24 three minutes into the third quarter, but St. Kate's responded with a 12-2 run to open up a 43-26 cushion with 2:25 to go in the quarter. The seven-point margin after Zhen's layup was the closest St. Olaf got in the second half.
St. Olaf hosts Hamline University on Monday, Feb. 5 at 7 p.m. at Skoglund Center.
