The St. Thomas women’s basketball team’s three starting seniors, Maggie Weiers, Kelly Brandenburg and Taylor Young, each chipped in 11 points en route to a 52-49 win over Loras College in the first round of the D-III NCAA tournament Friday at Schoenecker Arena.
The Tommies overcame their tournament nerves and poor outside shooting with a dominant defensive performance to advance past the Loras College (19-9) Duhawks.
“(NCAA Tournament games) are definitely more intense,” senior guard Kelly Brandenburg said. “You could see everyone’s first-game jitters.”
Despite shooting 1-for-9 from 3-point range in the first half, St. Thomas (23-4) was able to win a battle of runs to end the half by holding Loras scoreless for the last 9:22 before halftime while making its own 13-0 run.
“At that point, things were going well; we were starting to lock in,” coach Ruth Sinn said. “We thought ‘OK, now we’re set. Now let’s take that next step.’”
The Duhawks came out in the second half with a re-energized effort. They were able to hold the Tommie offense in check and capitalize on some St. Thomas foul trouble to catch up and take a 35-34 lead with 11:20 left in the game.
“We had a lot of players that had four (fouls),” Weiers said. “That helped them take advantage of the matchups they had on the court. It was a bad situation, but we handled it well.”
The Tommies then relied on their defense and some timely shooting in a back-and-forth game to secure the win.
“Defense is the main key to our team and our success,” Brandenburg said. “Every time we go on the floor, we always look for a defensive stop first, and that carries into our offense.”
The Tommie 3-point shooting (3 of 17 in the game) finally got going when guard Katie Stone hit two 3-pointers late in the game to help secure the victory.
“What we needed to do was stretch the (defense) out a little bit by hitting some outside shots. That wasn’t really happening tonight … but when it did, some good things happened,” Sinn said.
The win advances St. Thomas to the second round of the tournament to face Wis.-Whitewater Saturday night. Whitewater defeated Concordia-Moorhead 79-72 Friday night.
The Tommies are confident they will be ready for the talented Warhawk team after their close victory over Loras.
“It feels good to get the jitters out,” Weiers said. “I think we’ll be a lot more focused, calm and just more comfortable in the … tournament tomorrow.”
“We need to make sure we get good quality possessions and we need to limit them from quick possessions where they get quick easy scores,” Sinn said of Saturday’s game against Whitewater. “It’ll be interesting to see if it’s an offensive battle or if it’s a defensive battle.”
St. Thomas will play the Warhawks at 7 p.m. Saturday in Schoenecker Arena.
Scott Sikich can be reached at siki3549@stthomas.edu