The UST women’s basketball team beat Ripon on Friday night by 30 points. The Tommies advanced to play Wisconsin Lutheran Saturday night at 7. (Ahna Clark/TommieMedia)
Hannah Spaulding holds the ball from three Ripon defenders. She helped the No. 3-ranked Tommies advance in the NCAA playoffs. (Ahna Clark/TommieMedia)
Senior Lucia Renikoff moves the ball past the Ripon defense. The Tommies will play Saturday in the round of 32. (Ahna Clark/TommieMedia)
Sophomore Kaia Porter prepares to shoot the ball past the Ripon defense. (Ahna Clark/TommieMedia)
Teammates cheered for a victory as the final buzzer rang. The Tommies beat Ripon 88-58 at the Schoenecker Arena.(Ahna Clark/TommieMedia)
Senior Hannah Spaulding scored 29 points and gathered 10 rebounds. (Ahna Clark/TommieMedia)
Freshman Mia Krogseng holds her dribble. Krogseng helped the team advance to the second round of the NCAA championships. (Ahna Clark/TommieMedia)
Sophomore Guard Macy Hatlestad winds up for a free throw. (Ahna Clark/TommieMedia)
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.