ST. PAUL, Minn. – The St. Olaf College women's basketball team held a 31-30 halftime lead before Macalester College scored 48 second-half points to come away with a 78-57 victory on Saturday afternoon at the Leonard Center.

Despite trailing for over 12 minutes in the opening half, St. Olaf (7-16, 1-15 MIAC) took a one-point lead into the locker room before Macalester (11-12, 6-10 MIAC) shot 57.1 percent (20-for-35) in the second half to pick up the win. Peyton Starks and Katherine Norquist combined for 45 points and 13 assists to lead the Scots to the home victory.

Sophomore Joy Brandenstein scored a team-high 17 points – one shy of her career high – for St. Olaf while shooting 6-for-10 from the field and 4-for-4 from the free-throw line. Seniors Sophia Kormann and Sarah Tangen were also in double figures with 15 and 10 points, respectively.

Starks, who leads the conference in scoring at over 18.0 points per game, had 25 points on 11-for-21 shooting to go with six assists for Macalester, while Norquist added 20 points on 10-for-18 from the field along with five rebounds, seven assists, four steals, and two blocked shots. Macalester shot 50.8 percent (33-for-65) for the game after the hot-shooting second half.

Starks scored 10 of Macalester's 17 first-quarter points to lead the hosts to a 17-14 lead after 10 minutes. St. Olaf got three-pointers from Tangen and senior Paige Yagodinski in the first 2:29 to open up an 8-2 lead, but the Scots outscored the Oles by a 15-6 margin over the remainder of the quarter.

The Oles shot 50.0 percent (7-for-14) in the second quarter and got eight points from Kormann in the period to grab a slender halftime lead. Norquist went 5-for-6 from the field in a 10-point second quarter for the Scots, but a layup by Brandenstein in the final minute of the half sent St. Olaf into the break on top.

Macalester used a 9-0 run early in the third quarter to turn a three-point deficit into a six-point lead and led by at least three the rest of the way. After trailing by nine midway through the third, St. Olaf got within three in the final minute of the quarter before Mary Daley hit a three-pointer to put the Scots up by six heading to the fourth.

In the fourth, Macalester shot 60.0 percent (6-for-10) from the field and limited St. Olaf to three made field goals to outscore the Oles by a 28-13 margin. Starks scored the Scots' first seven points of the quarter as part of a nine-point final 10 minutes for the conference's leading scorer.

St. Olaf will host Saint Mary's University in its final home game of the season on Wednesday, Feb. 19 at 5:30 p.m.