Senior captain Kaitlin Langer pumps up the team before last month’s game against Macalester. (Meghan Vosbeek/TommieMedia)
Junior Lauren Fischer follows through on a three pointer. Fischer scored 13 points for St. Thomas in their game Wednesday night. (Meghan Vosbeek/TommieMedia)
Sophomore Lucia Renikoff scores a layup for the Tommies. Renikoff had 13 points for St. Thomas Wednesday night. (Meghan Vosbeek/TommieMedia)
Senior Paige Gernes looks to make a move towards the basket. Gernes had a total of 9 rebounds against Macalester. (Meghan Vosbeek/TommieMedia)
First year Elsa Anderson reaches over opponent to score for the Tommies. Anderson had 4 points against Macalester Wednesday night. (Meghan Vosbeek/TommieMedia)
Senior Kaitlin Langer goes up strong to score for the Tommies. Langer had 13 points against Macalester. (Meghan Vosbeek/TommieMedia)
Senior guard Gabby Zehrer dribbles the ball down the court. Zehrer had 6 points against Macalester. (Meghan Vosbeek/TommieMedia)
Sophomore Hannah Spaulding scores a layup. Spaulding scored 10 points in the women’s game Wednesday night. (Meghan Vosbeek/TommieMedia)
Senior Kaitlin Langer fights through the Macalester defense. Langer had 7 rebounds in Wednesday nights game. (Meghan Vosbeek/TommieMedia)
The third-ranked and undefeated St. Thomas women’s basketball team claimed its seventeenth win of the season after crushing Macalester College 71-48 Wednesday night at Schoenecker Arena.
The Tommies (17-0 overall, 11-0 MIAC) led the Scots (9-9 overall, 3-8 MIAC) in all 60 minutes of the game. Center Kaitlin Langer, forward Lauren Fischer and guard Lucia Renikoff offensively led both teams with 13 points each.
Fischer, who also led the Tommies in three pointers and total rebounds, said that while runaway games aren’t the most challenging, they do boost team morale.
“It’s just fun when everyone gets a chance to play and everyone gets a chance to score,” Fischer said. “We get really excited when people who don’t normally get a lot of minutes score.”
Fittingly, the team adopted the mantra, “own every moment” and have lived by it all season.
“Coach Sinn actually picked (the quote),” Fischer said. “We say ‘own every moment’ because we want to get better every moment and we don’t want to take any time for granted. We know we each only have four years and that time goes by fast, so we want to make our time count.”
Langer said the mantra keeps the team focused.
“We are more experienced this year, so I think that because we’re not as young as last year, we need to realize the importance of maintaining our focus through every moment,” Langer said. “And make sure that we treat each (possession), no matter who we’re playing, like it’s a championship game.”
Head coach Ruth Sinn added that the national spotlight on the Tommies also adds to their focus.
“The neat thing about the position we’re in right now — we’re third in the country,” Sinn explained. “Rankings don’t mean anything, but they sure do for our opponents, because they’re each gonna give us their best shot, so we’re very fortunate that everybody we play has got a scheme. And we’ve gotta figure out … how to counter that each time.”
Langer, who reached personal milestones of 1,000 collegiate career points and 500 rebounds last Saturday against Augsburg, has one more goal for her senior campaign.
“NCAA Final Four,” she sang, “but we have a lot of steps before we get there.”
Those steps include defeating both St. Ben’s (11-6 overall, 7-3 MIAC) and Gustavus (17-0 overall, 10-0 MIAC) who sit at fourth and first respectively in the conference. The Tommies will face the Blazers in Collegeville this Saturday at 3 p.m.
Lauren Andrego can be reached at lauren.andrego@stthomas.edu.