01/04/07

St. Scholastica got the new year off on the right foot with a 57-50 win over visiting UW-River Falls in a non-conference game Thursday night in the Reif Center, ending the five game losing skid that had closed out the 2006 portion of their season schedule.

Junior Whitney Latham had a game-high 16 points to lead the Saints (4-7, 0-1 UMAC) and senior Jessie Stenberg added 12 in the winning effort. Senior teammate Heather Saralampi had seven rebounds to lead the Saints.

River Falls’ Traci Reimann was a monster on the boards for the Falcons (8-5, 2-2 WIAC) in the losing effort, ripping down 17 rebounds. She and teammate Kim Sorenson led the Falcons in scoring, each with 14 points on the night.

River Falls led for all but 2 minutes and 22 seconds of the opening 20 minutes and took a 26-22 lead into the locker room at the half.

The Saints battled back in the opening minutes of the second half to grab their first lead of the game since the 14:52 mark of the first half when a Kirsten Haukom 3-pointer put the Saints up by two with 14:26 to play in the game.

After the Falcons tied things up at 32 following a drought for both teams that lasted nearly two minutes, St. Scholastica’s Amanda Johnson put the Saints ahead again with a layup the next time down the floor.

The Saints held onto their lead for nearly seven minutes before River Falls would mount one final comeback to even the score at 45-45 with 5:24 to play, but the Saints scored the next six points to ground the hopes of the Falcons and earn their first win since December 5, 2006.

Neither team shot exceptionally well from the field – both teams hit only 35 percent for the night – but after shooting an abysmal 26 percent in the opening half, St. Scholastica’s 46 percent in the second half had a large impact in the outcome as River Falls dipped to only 32 percent from the field over the final 20 minutes, including hitting only two of 13 three-point attempts.

The Saints also bounced back at the free throw line hitting 17-of-19 (89.5%) in Thursday’s win, a chasm of improvement after shooting 25 percent in their last game, a  two-point loss in their final game at the Grand Canyon Classic.