St. Thomas Women’s basketball wins 76-68 in overtime against Loras College. St. Thomas (16-2 MIAC, 24-3 overall) played Loras College (10-4 IIAC and 19-8 overall) Friday night in River Falls. (Natalie Hall/TommieMedia)
Guard Paige Gernes directs her teammates while dribbling the ball. The Tommies continued their winning streak tonight, with their 15th win against Loras College Friday night. (Natalie Hall/TommieMedia)
Center Kaitlin Langer boxes out a defender, going for a layup. Langer scored 25 points and had 11 rebounds in Friday’s game against Loras College. (Natalie Hall/TommieMedia)
Forward Mykenzie Spaulding, saves the ball on a rebound shot by Katie Stone in the third quarter. Spaulding is a captain for the St. Thomas women and one of two seniors on the team. (Natalie Hall/TommieMedia)
Coach Ruth Sinn creates the game plan during a timeout in the third quarter. The Tommies were down by 12 during the fourth quarter, and regained a lead after Sinn’s motivational talk. (Natalie Hall/TommieMedia)
Center, captain Kaitlin Langer, shoots a jump shot in the fourth quarter shortly before fouling out. Langer scored half the team’s points by halftime in Friday night’s game against the Duhawks. (Natalie Hall/TommieMedia)
Langer fights for the ball with a Loras College player and fouls out with 6:02 left in the fourth quarter. The Tommie women were down by 11 but recovered in overtime. (Natalie Hall/TommieMedia)
Langer reacts emotionally to her fourth-quarter’s fouling out. Langer said she believed this was the team’s final game. (Natalie Hall/TommieMedia)
Guard Katie Stone goes for a 3-point shot during the fourth quarter. Stone scored 20 out of the last 29 points in the game. (Natalie Hall/TommieMedia)
Stone takes a 3-point shot during the fourth quarter. She had a high-scoring final quarter Friday. (Natalie Hall/TommieMedia)
RIVER FALLS, Wis. — An impressive late-game showing by guard Katie Stone helped the St. Thomas women’s basketball team win an overtime battle with Loras College 76-68 in the first round of the NCAA tournament Friday night at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.
Stone, who scored 20 of the Tommies’ last 29 points, connected on five of her 13 3-pointers in the contest and finished with a career-high 32 points. The senior was the cornerstone for the comeback, scoring 10 of the Tommies’ 13 overtime points. Coach Ruth Sinn said Stone thrives on big moments.
“If it’s one thing that you know, (Stone) has ice in her veins. She loves big moments, she always has,” Sinn said. “She just stepped up.”
Stone averaged 12.9 points per game and shot 37.4 from behind the arc during the regular season, and she set the conference record for three-pointers in a season. Against the Duhawks, Stone shot 11 for 23 from the field and connected on five of her nine free throws. Stone said she’s been working on driving and drawing contact in the paint the past couple weeks.
“I feel over the past couple of weeks I’ve gotten a lot better at that,” Stone said. “I just feel at that moment I had the best opportunity to get to the free throw line at the end of the game.”
Stone’s fourth-quarter showing was crucial after the Tommies (25-3 overall) lost MIAC Player of the Year center Kaitlin Langer, who received her fifth foul with 6:02 left in the fourth quarter.
Following a missed St. Thomas free throw, a Loras player scooped up the loose ball as she simultaneously landed on the floor. Langer got tangled up as she went for the jump ball opportunity but was called for the foul.
Not only did the Tommies lose their leading scorer, they were also trailing by 11 points when Langer exited the contest. Despite missing half of the fourth quarter and all of overtime, Langer chipped in 25 points with 11 rebounds on 10 of 22 shooting. Langer was frustrated that she couldn’t provide support for her team.
“Disappointment — you want to be there for your team during the game, especially this game,” Langer said.
On top of Langer’s and Stone’s contributions, guard Lauren Fischer added 15 points by shooting 4 of 6 from the field and connecting on five of her six free throws.
Guard Megan Jones lead the charge for Loras (19-9 overall), scoring 17 points and adding six rebounds. Guard Kaitlin Phillips and forward Lori Obendorf, who were both named to the All-Iowa Conference first team, had a quiet night against St. Thomas. Phillips, who averages 13.2 points, finished with eight points on 3 of 9 shooting. Obendorf scored seven and hauled in nine rebounds. She was also named the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year after averaging 11 points and 11.5 rebounds.
Even though the Tommies beat Loras, Langer said they still have a lot of preparation to do for the next round.
“We found a way to win today, even though we didn’t play our best in regulation,” Langer said. “Tomorrow’s a new game, so it’ll be a new game plan, new strategy.”
The Tommies, who are ranked No. 8 nationally, will face No. 13 River Falls in the second round of the playoffs at 5 p.m. Saturday. The Falcons’ offense features forward Taylor Karge, who averaged 14.9 points and received All-WIAC First Team honors.
Jesse Krull can be reached at krul7386@stthomas.edu.