NCAA Tournament 2nd Round Game - Wisconsin Lutheran vs UST 3-2-19

Made the journey from Blaine High School on the north side of town back down to Schoenecker Arena on the campus of UST on the St. Paul side of town in plenty of time to get settled in for Saturday night's second round NCAA Tournament game between Friday night's winners Wisconsin Lutheran and host UST.  While I think it was expected that the Tommies would again be heavy favorites in this one, you certainly could not discount what the Warriors had done the previous night in dismissing a very good Illinois Wesleyan team in the first round and they weren't 27-1 for nothing either. 

Wisconsin Lutheran, in fact, would draw first blood in this contest at the 9:26 mark of the opening period on a three-point bomb from the right top area by senior guard Lexi Reinke but the Tommies would quickly match that when senior point guard Kaylie Brazil unleashed a "3" of her own from the left top area at the 8:28 mark.  Senior All-American post Hannah Spaulding would put UST on top with a score in the paint at the 7:43 mark and would add one free throw after getting fouled at the 7:10 mark to make it a 6-3 ballgame before the Warriors could close the gap to one point on a jumper from the right elbow area by senior forward Jen Dowden at the 6:42 mark.  The Tommies - specifically Spaulding herself - would launch a 6-0 push to establish a bit of breathing room as the former Annandale native first snared an offensive rebound of her own miss for a putback at the 5:03 mark and would score again less than a minute later with a short, one-handed shot off the glass with 4:15 left to make it 10-5.  Spaulding would again grab an offensive rebound of her own miss for a putback with 2:58 left to make it 12-5 before Wisconsin Lutheran could again close this gap.  Senior forward Maddy Elrod's pretty reverse lay-up with 1:54 left reduced the deficit to five points and freshman reserve guard Jenna Mace connected with a one-handed shot off the glass as the shot clock was expiring with :57 left to bring the Warriors back within a single possession down 12-9.  UST freshman reserve post Brynne Rolland increased the Tommie lead to five again with her lay-up with :30 left but Wisconsin Lutheran would strike like a rattlesnake just before the end of this first period when junior guard/forward Kelly Tramburg banged home a "3" from the right corner with just :00.1 on the clock as the Warriors seemed to be up to the task down only 14-12.

Wisconsin Lutheran sophomore reserve forward Amanda Brug; who played such a pivotal role for the Warriors in Friday night's win over Illinois Wesleyan, kept the Warriors within single possession range at 16-14 when she muscled into the paint for a score at the 9:11 mark but UST would respond with a 6-0 push to open up some more breathing room again.  Sophomore guard/forward Kaia Porter would come up with two scores herself - a jumper from the left elbow area at the 8:21 mark and a lay-up in transition at the 7:43 mark to give the Tommies a 20-14 advantage and the lead would expand to eight when Spaulding got a routine score in the paint at the 5:48 mark.  Brazil would make a nifty little drive into the lane and connect with one of her trademark floaters for a score with 4:44 left to maintain the eight-point lead at 24-16 and a score in the paint by sophomore reserve guard Kelsie Cox with 3:53 left did the same as UST held a a 26-18 lead.  The Warriors would try and cut into this cushion as senior guard Maddie Cruz sneaked into the paint for a score with 3:27 left but then the Tommies unleashed a key 12-0 run that really changed the complexion of this contest.  Cox unleashed one of her lefty "3's" from the right wing area with 3:07 left and a Spaulding lay-up with 2:24 left got UST up double-digits at 31-20.  With 1:47 left, Cox uncorked another three-point bomb - this one from the right corner that now pushed the Tommie lead to 34-20 and Wisconsin Lutheran Head Coach Klay Knueppel knew he had a big problem on his hand and quickly called a timeout to assess the carnage.  But even this stoppage in play did not slow the Tommie offensive.  Brazil connected with one of her trademark running jumpers from the right side with :32 left and then senior guard Lucia Renikoff; thus far quiet from a scoring standpoint; likely made the play of the weekend when she snared a steal and then connected with a jumper from the right top area in transition just before the halftime buzzer that had the crowd inside Schoenecker Arena going nuts and allowed UST to take a cozy 38-20 lead into the locker room with them at the halftime break.  A check of the first half box score shows that while turnovers were not much of a factor for either team, the Tommies did hold a sizable 17-10 edge on the boards (thanks in large part to Spaulding who already had ten of those) and Wisconsin Lutheran was having a much tougher time scoring on this night as they were 9-24 from FG range for 37.5% and 2-6 from downtown for 33.3%.  UST was shooting at a much better clip going 16-26 for 61.5% and 3-8 from behind the arc for 37.5%.

The Warriors seemed determined to try and make some inroads on this cushion that they faced in the third period as one free throw by Dowden at the 9:41 mark and a pretty lay-up off of an inbounds pass by Cruz  at the 7:45 mark helped slim the deficit down to sixteen points at 39-23 but it didn't come without a price tag as Dowden was forced to sit a spell as she had collected her fourth foul in the process.  Still, Elrod would connect with a jumper from the top of the key just inside the arc at the 7:26 mark to get the deficit down to fourteen points at 39-25 and two Cruz free throws with 4:25 left kept Wisconsin Lutheran in that fourteen-point range down 41-27 and also helped spark a 6-0 push.  Reinke connected with a short turnaround jumper from the right side with 3:57 left and would also drop two pairs of free throws as well - once with 3:12 left and again with 2:32 left as the Warriors had now climbed back into single-digit range and hope was renewed among the Wisconsin Lutheran contingent.  But those hopes soon faded as the Tommies got back-to-back three-point bombs to widen the gap again - one by senior reserve guard Bobbi Brendefur from the left corner with 2:19 left and one by junior guard Sarah Krynski with :49 left - that pushed the lead back to fourteen points at 47-33.  The Warriors would get that gap down to eleven when Cruz drained a "3" of her own from the right corner with :21 left in the third period but all that hard work just to get back within striking distance again had been quickly wiped away by one little UST burst.

The Tommies left nothing to chance once the fourth period got underway as a short running jumper off the glass by Renikoff at the 9:15 mark sparked an 8-2 push.  Spaulding would add two free throws at the 8:41 mark and then two scores in the paint - one by Porter at the 7:08 mark and another by Spaulding at the 6:24 mark - now had UST up 55-38.  The Warriors got one last glimmer of hope with a 5-0 burst as Tramburg connected with a lay-up at the 6:07 mark and then Brug would connect with a lay-up as well at the 5:25 mark that also drew a foul in the process and her ensuing "and one" reduced the deficit to twelve at 55-43.  Brug would get into the paint for a score with 4:46 left to help Wisconsin Lutheran stay in that twelve-point range down 57-45 and Elrod would do the same with 3:24 left that had the Warriors down 59-47.  Tramburg would make a drive for a finish with 1:57 left that again had Wisconsin Lutheran in that twelve-point range again down 61-49 and Knueppel would call a timeout in hopes of setting up some late-game strategy but the problem for the Warriors is that UST always had an answer when they needed it and never let the Warriors get dangerously close again.  The Tommies' Krynski knocked down one free throw after getting fouled with 1:45 left and although Wisconsin Lutheran's Cruz would connect with a lay-up with 1:29 left to trim the deficit to eleven at 62-51, the Warriors were now forced to foul as well and this put UST in position to ice this game from the charity stripe.  Brazil got one to go down after getting fouled with 1:06 left and Renikoff would get two more insurance free throws with :48.6 left to make it 65-51.  Brazil would get two more for good measure with :26.6 left and the Tommies advanced to the Sweet 16 again with a hard-earned 67-51 victory.

The Wisconsin Lutheran post-game press conference was attended by Knueppel along with four of five seniors on the squad - Elrod, Dowden, Reinke and Cruz.  Knueppel:  "What a great year for our team....For our program...What these four guys have done for our program, I can't say enough.....We showed in the second half what kind of fight that we have....I told the team in the locker room at the half that one quarter (the second quarter) does not define who we are for the whole season; what we've done as a group; as a team....We knew that St. Thomas was going to be a really tough match for us and early on they just 'out-physiced' us...It was obvious."  I asked Knueppel that despite the run they had to absorb from UST in the second period, I felt that his squad had a pretty solid response in the third period; closing the gap down to the 11- and 12-point range but couldn't seem to get closer.  "Well, you're playing a really good team...I mean, they're a good team and when you play a good team and you get down by that much and you try to fight back, you use a lot of energy to get back into it and when you use all that energy up, it's hard to get over the hump and win the game.....We played tough in the second half but when you get down by that much, it's tough."  You can view the entire Wisconsin Lutheran press conference at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TARria2xjTg

UST's Ruth Sinn had a lot of praise for Wisconsin Lutheran during the Tommie post-game press conference.  "As far as the game is concerned, Wisconsin Lutheran was 26-1/27-1 coming into this weekend and they've got a great team....And if you look at their team, you don't get to be 27-1 unless you really understand your identity and you have a lot to offer.....Their top six players are all seniors and you saw that....They played hard and played with their heart and they did a great job so my hat's off to them.....Throughout this process, we talked about that....We WANT to be challenged and we want to get better and I really do believe that's a great game for us especially defense....I was really proud of our defensive effort and again, they just kept challenging us and we kept answering.....In that first half, I thought we did an incredible job defensively making every shot tough for them.  But they kept answering but I thought we did a really nice job on the defensive end.  I asked Sinn about how Wisconsin Lutheran was able to chop off some of the cushion that her team had at the half in that third period but responded well in the fourth period when things were still a little uncertain.  "We talked about that in the locker about the maturity that we showed.....That even though they were threatening, you didn't notice that in their body language....It was 'Next play, what's the next thing we have to do?'.....They were presenting some challenges to us and we kept trying to find solutions...."  I also asked Renikoff (who was in the press conference along with Spaulding) about the great play she made right before the halftime break when she snared the steal and got a spectacular shot off right before the halftime buzzer.  "Well, it was a good defensive play; I can't take credit for it, I just grabbed it when the ball was loose....And we only had a certain amount of seconds left and the bank was open so I was thankful for that!"  You can view the entire UST press conference at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov9TmBZkZzg&t=5s

I mentioned the rebounding aspect where the Tommies ruled the boards on this night.  Both teams probably had a few more turnovers than what they would have ideally liked with Wisconsin Lutheran committing 13 and UST guilty of 15.  As Sinn said, it was her defense that carried the evening and the fact that the Warriors wound up going 20-48 for 41.7% from FG range and 3-14 from downtown for 21.4% shows you how good the Tommies were on defense on this night.  Conversely, UST finished going 24-45 for 53.3% and 5-12 for a decent 41.7% from behind the arc.  Perhaps the only real area of concern, IMHO, was UST's free throw shooting and again, this is something that will need to improve as the Tommies were only 14-20 for 70%.  What can you say about Spaulding?  All she did on this night was get yet another "double-double" leading all scorers with 21 points and grabbing 13 rebounds in the process.  Brazil, too, had a fine night as she got 11 points and both Porter and Cox tallied ten points on this night.  For Wisconsin Lutheran, Tramburg paced the way with her 13 points while both Cruz and Reinke tallied 11 points in their final collegiate game.