Senior center Hannah Spaulding dominated as the No. 3 St. Thomas women’s basketball team bested Ripon College 88-58 in the first round of the 2019 NCAA Division III tournament.
The Tommies (27-1) outlasted the Redhawks (19-9) and booked a spot in the second round of the tournament for the eighth year in a row.
“To see how hard those young ladies on Ripon were playing and how much they care about what they are doing is a tribute to coach [Lauren] Busalacchi and her program,” coach Ruth Sinn said. “I think we will be seeing a lot more from Ripon.”
Spaulding controlled the game, finishing with 29 points and 10 rebounds, despite matching up against 6-foot-2-inch senior center Maggie Oimoen. The all-conference Oimoen finished with 11 points on 4-for-11 shooting.
“Throughout the year we work on a lot of different moves to attack all players of different sizes,” Spaulding said. “We are really prepared for anyone.”
Ripon junior guard Caitie Carpenter kept her team stride-for-stride with the Tommies early in the game, trailing 11 at halftime. Carpenter finished with 16 points, four times her season average.
“We usually don’t want players who don’t usually have an impact come in and do that to us,” sophomore forward Kaia Porter said. “When it happens, we need to recognize it and put more ball pressure on that player.”
Porter finished with 17 points, including three 3-pointers.
The Tommies cannot celebrate the victory long. They play again Saturday night, something coach Sinn and the Tommies are no stranger to.
“Over Christmas break we went to Wartburg and played a tournament with high caliber teams,” Sinn said. “We’ve gone through this routine. It’s nothing new to our players.”
The Tommies will play Wisconsin Lutheran in a second-round matchup at 7 p.m. at Schoenecker Arena.
Alex Panos can be reached at pana8391@stthomas.edu.