Despite a turnover-heavy first half, the St. Thomas women’s basketball team was able to rally past St. Catherine University with a 73-56 victory Wednesday night at Schoenecker Arena.
Guard Jenna Dockter scored a game-high 21 points to key the Tommies’ (22-0 overall, 15-0 MIAC) strong second half. Dockter was 7 of 13 from the field including 2 of 3 from beyond the arc. Coach Ruth Sinn said a big part of their success was depth.
“(Dockter) did a fantastic job,” Sinn said. “The thing that we have going for us is we have different people that can step up and contribute. The nice thing is we have the depth.”
Guards Katie Stone and Hannah Hughes were second on the team in scoring with 12 points, while forward Anna Smith and center Maggie Weiers trailed them with 10 apiece. Dockter said although the Tommies started slow, their intensity was key.
“I think tonight we had to come out focused and ready to play,” Dockter said. “St. Kate’s is really aggressive defensively, so we knew we had to take care of the ball. We had a few turnovers there in the beginning of the game and some missed lay ups, but once we made some adjustments we did a little better.”
Turnovers were a problem early for the Tommies and were the main focus of halftime adjustments.
“We usually try to have 10 a game, and we had 10 in the first half,” Dockter said. “So we tried really making adjustments, slowing down, being careful with our passes and just being strong with the ball.”
Sinn agreed and said the Tommies’ playoff hopes depend on their ability to be stronger with the ball.
“We have to continue to work on that,” Sinn said. “If we’re going to do anything we’ve got to take care of the ball, and we’ve got to make every possession count. We can’t have wasted possessions, and we had too many (tonight).”
Defensively, the Tommies were strong again, registering 10 steals and three blocks as a team. Amidst all the games and statistics, their record remains unblemished; however, that is not the team’s focus moving forward.
“We just need to come in locked every single game,” Dockter said. “We have three big games left here in the regular season.”
The Tommies’ season continues Saturday when they travel to Concordia-Moorhead to take on the Cobbers.
Andrew Frentz can be reached at fren2218@stthomas.edu.