Busied myself watching the three games online last night and although one was a blowout, the other two - one in particular - were very good.
Down in Winona, the visiting Gusties would surge to a 27-7 lead by the opening period as there was little doubt as to how this one was going to go as GAC rolled to an easy 81-51 win over SMU. A savage Gustie defensive effort held SMU to 17-57 for 29.8% from FG range and only 3-22 from downtown for 13.6%. And GAC pounded the Cardinals on the boards as well by a 52-24 count as well. The Gusties certainly shared the wealth scoring-wise on this night with sophomore guard Anna Sanders somewhat surprisingly leading the way with her 16 points while fellow sophomore guard Maddy Rice finished with ten and willowy senior guard Marisa Gustafson tallied 10 points as well. Senior post Maggie Robertson paced SMU on this night with her 11 points.
Meanwhile on the east side of Minneapolis, the visiting Bethel Royals; looking to bounce back after the upset loss to Concordia up at Moorhead on Sunday evening, found themselves embroiled in a tough battle with a very young Augsburg team that kept things tight for most of the contest before the Royals slowly started taking control of things in the fourth period to get a hard-earned 66-59 win. Bethel relied heavily on the one-two punch of sophomore guard Kat Brown-Erdal and senior forward Elizabeth Schwarz as both led all scorers with their 18 points a piece. Augsburg got 14 points from both freshman guard Kalena Myers and junior forward Jen Masello. While both teams were plagued by the turnover bugaboo on this night that likely had head coaches Jon Herbrechtsmeyer and Ted Riverso reaching for the Tylenol PM once they got home, Bethel's 51-41 advantage on the boards likely saved the Royals on this night. One alarming stat that I noticed as well: Bethel was only 11-22 from the charity stripe on this night. Augsburg was only marginally better going 13-18 for 72.2%.
But easily the game of the night took place up in St Joe between two old rivals in one final meeting as host CSB pulled off a huge upset of unbeaten UST by a final score of 88-83 as CSB Head Coach Mike Durbin recorded his 700th victory at the helm of the program. The Bennies held a 45-38 lead at the half but you knew UST would come out strong in the third period and they in fact did grab a short-lived 51-50 lead but the Tommies simply were unable to fend off a determined and spirited CSB team that just showed a ton of heart and spunk and never faltered or panicked down the stretch when UST would manage to tighten things up. To me, the thing that stood out just watching this game online was CSB's ability to penetrate into the heart of the Tommie defense with their guards who were able to beat their defenders off the dribble whether it be from the perimeter or along the baseline. Had they been relegated to simply throwing up shots from the perimeter, it may have been a totally different story but not on this night. The other thing that stood out to me is the young cast of characters on this CSB team that stepped up on this night. We all know about senior forward Maddie Schmitz and she certainly did her part with her "double-double" of 12 points and 10 rebounds but how about freshman guard Carla Meyer leading this Bennie team with her 16 points? Or junior guard Madison Doran with 14 points or perhaps fellow junior guard Kate Seyer with her 13 points? Or sophomore post Tori Szathmary tallying 11 points on this night? Some new faces for sure on this CSB team that I haven't either seen or heard about before but probably had better get used to seeing these names and faces again. My guess is that UST Head Coach Ruth Sinn ultimately had to point the finger at her team's defensive lapses on this night that saw the Bennies shoot 29-61 for 47.5% and 9-18 from behind the arc for a straight 50%. The Tommies didn't suffer that many turnovers (13) but they sure seemed to come at incredibly bad times for them. Senior forward Kaia Porter carried this UST team on her back last night with 20 points to lead all scorers while fellow senior guard Macy Hatlestad tallied 13 points. Fellow senior guard Noelle Tomes and junior post Brynne Rolland both finished with 11 points and freshman guard Katelyn Stanley added 10 points.
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