St. Olaf vs Macalester 1-18-20

Winter Storm Jacob effectively threw a monkey wrench into my original plans of traveling down to St Peter for the Augsburg - GAC game (now postponed until Sunday 1-19) so on this frigid Saturday afternoon. I set my sights on the St Paul side of town and Leonard Center on the campus of Macalester College as host Macalester prepared to take on visiting St. Olaf which braved the elements to head up north on I-35 and the Union Pacific "Spine Line" mainline into the Twin Cities.  The Oles were coming into this game with a so-so 6-8 overall record and 3-6 in conference play and had absorbed an 82-36 stomping at the hands of conference-leader Bethel on Wednesday night.  Macalester was only 1-13 overall and winless in conference play thus far and had absorbed a similar beatdown at Hamline on Wednesday night so naturally both teams were looking to make amends.  For St. Olaf, however, this game would be pivotal for their hopes of staying in the conference playoff chase.

The Scots would draw first blood in this contest on a jumper from the left corner just inside the arc by senior guard Holly Hull at the 9:30 mark of the opening period but St. Olaf would soon embark on a 7-0 push.  Junior guard Keegan Mulvihill would snare a steal of an inbounds pass and race the other way for a lay-up at the 8:56 mark and strong sophomore forward Camryn Scott would connect with a lay-up at the 8:12 mark to give the Oles a 4-2 advantage.  Senior guard Ella Skrien would then drain a "3" from the right corner at the 7:21 mark to put St. Olaf up 7-2 and although Macalester would get back to within a single possession at the 7:13 mark on two Hull free throws, the Oles would widen the gap even further.  A Scott score in the paint at the 6:04 mark and a "3" from the left corner by Mulvihill at the 5:34 mark had things looking good for St. Olaf at this point up 12-4.  The Scots, however, showed some spunk of their own and proceeded to go on an 8-0 run to get this game deadlocked.  Hull would knock down a jumper along the left baseline with 4:32 left and a "3" from the left corner by junior reserve guard Luci Swift with 4:02 left got Macalester back to within a single possession down 12-9.  Slender junior reserve forward Katherine Podoll tied this contest at 12 a piece with her three-point bomb from the right top area with 3:00 left to complete this run.  The Oles would stop some of the bleeding when freshman reserve forward Rachel Kelly connected with a lay-up in transition with 1:55 left that put St. Olaf back on top at 14-12 but the Scots continued to take the iniative as sophomore sensation guard Justine Barraza would make a sweet drive for a finish and draw a foul in the process and her obligatory free throw put Macalester back on top 15-14.  That lead would grow to 18-14 just before the end of this first period when freshman reserve guard Solana Cushing banged home a "3" from the right corner with just :03.5 left and first-year Scots Head Coach Katie Kollar had to feel somewhat good with her squad taking a four-point lead into the second period after the shaky start.

But those good feeling that Kollar had quickly faded once the second period got going as St. Olaf went on a key 17-3 run in the first seven minutes.  Lanky senior forward/post Britta Koenen started this run when she got into the paint for a score and drew a foul in the process and sank the ensuing free throw to reduce the deficit to a scant point at 18-17.  Freshman guard Cassie Fix pushed the Oles into the lead when she unleashed a dagger "3" from the left top area at the 8:18 mark at 20-18 and a short, turnaround jumper by Kelly at the 6:49 mark pushed the lead to four at 22-18.  An offensive rebound and putback by Kelly at the 6:19 mark maintained the four-point edge at 24-20 and two Kelly free throws at the 5:18 mark got St. Olaf a six-point lead at 26-20.  Mulvihill would uncork a "3" of her own from the right wing area with 3:59 left to make it 29-21 and Koenen would book-end this run with her score in the paint with 3:14 left before the Scots were able to get free throws from both junior guard Katie Sowerby with 2:44 left and another one by freshman reserve forward Emma LaFrenz with 2:24 left.  Still, the Oles would end this second period on another push to stretch their lead further.  Kelly would snare an offensive rebound of her own miss for a putback with 1:29 left and a Kelly score in the paint with 1:07 left gave St. Olaf a 35-23 lead.  One free throw by freshman reserve guard Grace Hegland with 43.1 left in this second period made it 36-23 before both teams headed to their locker room for the halftime recess.  A check of the first half box score reveals that, while the Oles didn't shoot all that great in the first half (14-33 from FG range for 42.4% and 4-11 from downtown for 36.4%), they had a sizable edge on the glass by a 23-15 count.  And Macalester's Kollar was not only going to have to find a way to get her squad to cut down the turnovers (12 to St. Olaf's 8), more importantly, she was going to have to find to neutralize the Oles' Kelly who did a lot of damage in the first half alone with her 12 points.

St. Olaf's Scott would add more cushion to her team's lead with a short, one-handed shot in the lane at the 8:56 mark of the third period to make it a 38-23 ballgame.  Both teams would endure a prolonged scoring drought but this would obviously hurt the Scots much more than the visitors from Northfield as we will see later as Macalester had several opportunities to cut into the deficit but couldn't cash in and suffered some untimely turnovers in the process as well.  The Oles' Kelly would finally dust off the cobwebs on her team's basket on her score in the paint at the 5:07 mark to make it 40-23 and then sophomore reserve guard K'Lynn Lewis would come up big for St. Olaf with two big three-point bombs - one from the left corner with 2:39 left and another one from the left top area with 1:48 left - to give the Oles a twenty-point cushion at 46-26.  Macalester was finally able to make some dents into this deficit as Hull would connect with a lay-up in transition with 1:38 left and two Hull free throws with :46.5 left and then Barraza would add one free throw with :23.1 left and two more after she was fouled in a transition opportunity with :07.2 left but with the Oles enjoying a 48-33 advantage going into the fourth period, perhaps the only downer for Head Coach Dave Stromme was that Koenen had picked up her fourth foul of the day late in this third period.

Indeed, things had gone so favorably for St. Olaf in that third period that it seemed quite unlikely that the Scots would be able to mount any kind of comeback attempt and the fact that it had been very difficult all game long for the Scots to do anything in the paint with the Oles length, it seemed like the only recourse was to just go bombs away from downtown and see what happens.  But one thing that's become apparent about this Macalester team is that they never give up; no matter what the circumstances are or how bleak things look.  After St. Olaf's Scott pushed her team's lead to 50-33 with a short jumper in the lane off the glass at the 9:24 mark of the fourth period, the Scots unleashed a 15-5 run that got them back into single-digit range again.  Junior forward Kayla Togneri connected with a jumper along the right baseline at the 9:05 mark and a Podoll "3" from the right wing area at the 8:31 mark had the deficit down to twelve at 50-38.  A pretty reverse lay-up by Swift at the 7:28 mark kept Macalester in that twelve-point range down 52-40 and a short jumper off the glass by sophomore guard Celine Sabbagh at the 6:38 mark reduced the deficit to ten points at 52-42.  An alarmed Ole team showed some pulse when Koenen; riding those four fouls, drained a "3" from the left top area at the 5:58 mark but even this did not deter the Scots.  Hull would muscle into traffic to snare an offensive rebound for a putback at the 5:03 mark and two free throws by Barraza with 4:01 left got Macalester back into single-digit range again down 55-46.  By this time, St. Olaf's Stromme could clearly see that his squad was getting a bit rattled by the pressure defense that the Scots were applying in this comeback attempt and called a timeout to get his squad calmed down a bit.  Still, the Scots created more uncertainty when Swift was able to knock down a jumper from the left wing off of an inbounds pass with 3:41 left that reduced the deficit to a tantalizing seven points at 55-48 before the Oles were finally able to dig in their heels and stop the bleeding and it would be Scott coming up with two big scores that finally righted the ship for St. Olaf.  The Lone Tree, Colorado native would connect with a lay-up with 3:16 left and, after the Oles snuffed out Macalester's last ditch attempts at this comeback bid, Scott would muscle into the paint for a score with :59 left to get the lead back up to double-digits at 59-48.  Stromme would call a thirty-second timeout to keep his squad on course and St. Olaf would finally close this one out.  Fix would knock down pairs of insurance free throws with :34.1 and :25.4 left and Mulvihill would snare a steal and dash the other way for a lay-up with just :08 left as the Oles escaped Leonard Center with a hard-fought 65-50 victory. 

I was able to catch up with St. Olaf's Stromme first after this game and had to ask him if he was concerned in the fourth period when the Scots made their run to get back into the game.  "Absolutely.....They've got some very good guards who are very athletic as well."  Still, I think from watching this Ole team today, I think it's safe to say that they've definitely taken some steps forward after struggling the last few years.  It's always good to pick up a hard-earned win on the road in this conference but, more importantly, St. Olaf is very much in the thick of things in the MIAC Playoff chase and the Ole's Skrien; who I was able to catch up with as well afterward, echoed those sentiments.  Meanwhile, another disappointing setback for this Macalester team that fought so hard in the fourth period to get back into it.  I mentioned to Kollar afterward that I thought that extended drought they had in the third period proved costly in more ways than one with all the missed opportunities and turnovers.  Had they been able to capitalize on some of those opportunities they had, we could have easily been looking at a much, much different ballgame when the Scots made their comeback attempt in the fourth period.  You have to admire, however, how this team keeps fighting when the chips are down and they're not a team that you'll ever want to take lightly - and that goes for the teams at or near the top such as Bethel, Augsburg, GAC and UST.  St. Olaf's Scott paced the team this day with her 16 points and although Kelly cooled off somewhat in the second half; finishing with "just" 14 points on this day, her big first half helped pave the way for the Oles.  Mulvihill also had some key moments in this game as well and finished with 10 points.  Over on the Macalester side, the Scots leaned heavily on Hull who also finished with 16 points and just missed out on a "double-double" with her nine rebounds.  Macalester's Kollar had to wince a bit at the box score that showed that St. Olaf owned the glass on this day by a 46-36 count and the fact that the Oles owned a whopping 34-10 advantage in points in the paint.  Throw in the fact that Macalester wound up shooting 15-59 from FG range for 25.4% and only 5-25 from downtown for 20% and you could see that their margin for error was incredibly small on this day.  One bright spot for Kollar and her staff, however:  The Scots did reasonably well from the stripe going 15-20 for a straight 75%.  Stromme as well had to have been pleased with his squad's free throw shooting as they were 10-13 for 76.9%.