Bethel vs St. Kate's 11-30-11

I hurried over to St. Kate's Butler Center to take in what I could of the Bethel - St. Kate's game that started at 7:30 on this night.  I got there at halftime and saw that Bethel had a commanding three-touchdown lead on the host Wildcats of 42-21.

Still, this young, feisty St. Kate's team did not lay down coming out of the locker room as they proceeded to go on a 10-2 run to start the second half that gave the home fans some hope but those hopes were quickly dashed after Bethel Head Coach Jon Herbrechtsmeyer called a time-out to get his squad settled down.  Sophomore Nicole Berscheid nailed a "3" from the right corner at the 16:53 mark and athletic junior Kelly Swenson scored in transition to build the lead back up to 16 at 51-35 by the 13:53 mark.  Senior sensation Taylor Sheley nailed a "3" from the top at the 11:40 mark as the lead bulged back up to 56-35 and sophomore guard Micaella Petrich scored at the 11:09 mark as the Royals regained that 21-point margin.  Bethel even increased that margin when freshman Katelyn Thomsen knocked down a "3" at the 10:23 mark and Swenson snared a steal and got a lay-up out of it at the 7:01 mark that enabled Bethel to cruise to a 72-57 win. 

Still, this is a fun St. Kate's team to watch and although Head Coach Gary Rufsvold has a lot of work in front of him, there is definitely hope for the future even with the loss of Laura Kalbfell, Sonja Ellingson, and Quin Halverson who were all in attendance last night watching their former team.  Freshman Jule Muegge (formerly of Hopkins) is an outstanding player and, although she has some mechanical work to do on some of her shots, she has the ability, IMHO, to be the MIAC MVP in the next year or so - she is that good.  Also fun to watch is 5'2" freshman PG Tiffani Pak; fresh out of Lowell High School in San Francisco.  Pak, just 16 years old, is not only smart but quicker than smoke and tough to guard.  Her youth may work against her at the moment but she will get better as time goes on.  Also, this Wildcat team has the injury bugaboo to deal with again as both sophomore Madison Pertler and senior guard Megan Zillmer were out with injuries (although Zillmer told me that she's hopeful she'll be back by PERHAPS this weekend).  Wildcat faithful have to be patient as this could be a long year in terms of the won-loss column but it will be fun to watch this team grow, mesh, and get better in the process.