Amber Darge’s third quarter 3-pointer pushed the No. 3 seed St. Thomas women’s basketball past the No. 6 seed St. Kate’s Wildcats 68-55 in the first round of the MIAC playoffs Tuesday night at Schoenecker Arena.
The Tommies started slow, finishing the first quarter behind St. Kate’s 16-12 and going into halftime down 29-26.
The Tommies and Wildcats exchanged seven lead changes in the first half of the game.
“You can see the difference between the halves,” coach Ruth Sinn said. “In the first half they were speeding us up, making us play faster, putting a lot of pressure on us and making us make quick decisions and poor shots.”
The Tommies went on a 20-8 scoring run in the third quarter to get ahead 50-42. Most of that run is credit to a 3-point percentage of 71% in the third quarter.
“In the second half, we slowed down and we got into our offense. We started distributing the ball, and we got good open shots to the people that we needed to,” Sinn said.
Shayla Wallin, sophomore starting forward, led the Tommies’ scorers with 16 points and nine rebounds, making two of three shots beyond the 3-point line.
“This is our first playoff win together as a group; it’s good to get this one under our belt,” Wallin said.
Brynne Rolland, sophomore starting center, followed behind Wallin, scoring 15 points and tallied nine rebounds.
“We’ve grown so much,” Rolland said. “We work together so nicely and fulfilling that for us this postseason means so much to us.”
Darge led the Tommies beyond the arc with four 3-point shots, including the basket that gave them the lead.
“We’re a very good shooting team,” Sinn said. “We shoot from outside very well.” Sinn said.
St. Kate’s Jackie Radford fouled out with 30.2 seconds left in the game with a flagrant foul on Macy Hatlestad on an inbound pass.
“We gotta move on, the flagrant foul was frustration on their side,” Sinn said. “We don’t show emotion like that on the court. Sports reveal character.”
The Tommies play at 7 p.m. Thursday at Augsburg in the MIAC semifinals.
Sinn says in order for the Tommies to win against Augsburg, they need to play on their terms and value the ball when they have it.
“We gotta be stronger with the basketball and understand that we’re in control,” Sinn said.
Andrés Tejeda can be reached at agtejeda@stthomas.edu.