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Posting Up - Scoreboard - Top 25 - Features - Notables - Team of the Week - Live Audio |
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Coverage of the women's Final Four |
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Second-round
game stories Saturday, March 3, 2001 St.
Thomas 64, George Fox 52 The win enables the tournament-tested Tommies, now 25-3, to advance to the Sweet 16 on Friday at a site to be announced some time Sunday, where they will face defending national champion and No. 1 Washington University. The Bruins, who had a 23-game home winning streak snapped by the team that eliminated them in the Sweet 16 round of the tournament last year, saw their season end at 23-3. Sparked by eight points from Northwest Conference Player of the Year Katie Lacey, George Fox took an 18-13 lead with nine-and-a-half minutes left in the first half, but then came what Bruin coach Scott Rueck called "the turning point of the game. We came down four times with a chance to extend our lead to eight, maybe ten points, and we couldn't put the ball in the hole." St. Thomas took advantage of the lull in the Bruin offense to reel off 11 unanswered points and outscore the home team 17-3 over the next seven minutes, with six different players contributing to the run. The Tommies led 30-21 with 2:30 to play before Lacey added four more points on a jumper and two free throws, cutting the gap to 32-25 at the half. The Tommies, who have made 15 NCAA tourrnament appearances in the last two decades, stretched their lead to as much as 15 at 46-31 with 12:44 to play on a three-pointer by Annie Epp, but the Bruins went on a 14-6 run to cut it to five at 52-47 with 4:29 left. It was the Bruins' last gasp, however, as All-Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference point guard Sarah Grudnowski scored all six of her points on the night in the final four minutes, leading the Tommies on a 12-5 run to end the game. MIAC Player of the Year Missy Pederson, whom Rueck called "as good a guard as you'll see at this level," led St. Thomas with 14 points, hitting 4 of 7 from three-point range, and handed out a game-high 8 assists. "Missy had been in a shooting slump, and it was good to see her snap out of it in the first half when we needed it to stay in the game," said UST coach Tricia Dornisch. "This was the best game for our whole team in three weeks, and we had to have it to beat a great team." Pederson was joined in double-figure scoring with 11 points, but the Tommies got excellent balance as all 10 players who got in scored. Case, Jennifer Ulstad, and Anne Newell had seven rebounds each as the Tommies out-rebounded the Bruins 45-34. "They were the biggest, strongest team we've faced all year, and it showed in the rebounding margin," admitted Rueck. "That, plus the fact that we had a bad shooting night — we're a 42% shooting team and we shot only 32% tonight (17-53) — is what killed us. We did a good job keeping our turnovers down against their press (only 10) but the other things hurt us." Lacey finished with 20 points, including a 10-for-10 game from the line, and led the Bruins with 9 rebounds, while Nicole Prazeau chipped in with 13 points. Becky Thompson passed out 6 assists for George Fox. |
Rankings and links to all D-III teams
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