NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The St. Olaf College women's basketball team cut a 15-point halftime deficit to five in the third quarter but could not complete the rally in a 55-43 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) defeat to Hamline University on Wednesday evening at Skoglund Center.

St. Olaf (6-8, 0-7 MIAC) trailed Hamline (10-4, 5-2 MIAC) by a 30-15 margin at halftime before starting the third quarter on a 10-0 run to get within five. The Pipers quickly rebuilt a double-figure lead and went on to claim the 12-point victory for their 12th win in the last 14 meetings in the series.

Senior Sophia Kormann recorded her third double-double of the season – her second in the last three games – with 10 points and a career-high-tying 11 rebounds, while sophomore Chloee Smith neared a double-double of her own with 10 points, nine rebounds, four steals, and one blocked shot. Senior Sarah Tangen hit a pair of three-pointers in a nine-point night for St. Olaf, which was held to 29.2 percent (14-for-48) shooting in the loss.

St. Olaf held Camille Cummings, a top-three scorer in the MIAC, to 2-for-9 shooting from the field and 1-for-6 from the three-point line, but Cummings was one of three Pipers in double figures with 12 thanks to going 7-for-10 at the free-throw line. Yasmeen Abed scored a game-high 14 points for the visitors, while Lauren Cooper was 3-for-4 from behind the arc while providing 10 points and eight boards off the bench.

Hamline scored 21 of its 55 points in the game off St. Olaf turnovers and enjoyed a 21-5 advantage in bench scoring in the game to overcome shooting 35.7 percent (20-for-56) as a team. Six Pipers had multiple steals in the win.

Tangen knocked down a three-pointer a little over a minute in to start an opening quarter where St. Olaf led for over half of the period. First year Grace Gertner made the Oles' second three-pointer of the quarter with three minutes left to break a 7-7 tie, but that was the final points of the quarter for St. Olaf, as Hamline scored the final five points to take a 12-10 lead after 10 minutes.

The Pipers held the Oles to one made field goal while outscoring St. Olaf by an 18-5 margin in the second quarter to build a 30-15 halftime lead. A layup by Smith midway through the quarter was the lone field goal of the quarter for the Oles, who trailed by 15 at the break after a cold-shooting opening half.

St. Olaf used three-pointers from Tangen and sophomore Bree Wilkerson on either side of back-to-back layups by Kormann in its 10-0 run to start the third quarter. Abed ended the scoring drought of 4:27 for Hamline with a layup to start an 18-8 end to the quarter for the visitors, who took a 15-point lead into the fourth and did not lead by fewer than 12 in the final quarter.

The Oles will visit Augsburg University in a 3 p.m. tip-off on Saturday, Jan. 18 at Si Melby Hall in Minneapolis.