02/02/07

St. Scholastica fought back from 14 points down with 8:47 to play behind a 13-0 run and even took a one point lead on a Megan Downs 3-pointer with 2:05 to play, but they wouldn’t score over the remaining time left and dropped an 83-78 home contest to Bethany Lutheran College at the Reif Center on Friday night.

The Saints (7-12, 3-5 UMAC) and Vikings (14-6, 6-3 UMAC) played each other the last time both teams hit the hardwood with St. Scholastica pulling out a 78-61 win in Mankato on Bethany Lutheran’s home court last Saturday afternoon.

In the rematch, the two teams battled closely for the first 10 minutes of the opening half, but the Vikings used an 11-0 run to open a double-digit lead that stretched to 15 with 4:59 left in the half and eventually closed with a 12-point lead as the two teams went to the locker rooms at halftime.

For nearly all of the second half the Vikings kept the Saints at double-figure arms length before St. Scholastica’s big run to close within one.

Downs led the Saints in the conference match up with 15 points. Senior Jessie Stenberg added 12 more in the losing effort.

Jessica Merseth scored a game-high 22 points for the Vikings while Eva Voss recorded a double-double in the win, pulling down 10 rebounds to go along with 20 points.

As a team, Bethany Lutheran out rebounded the Saints 59 to 37. Along with Voss’ 10 boards, Leslie Bremer had a game-high 11.

St. Scholastica is back in action on Saturday afternoon in a 3 p.m. game against Martin Luther College in the Reif Center on the St. Scholastica campus. The Saints will be welcoming back program alumnae for the game, and will start the day off with an Alumnae Game at 11 a.m. prior to the afternoon contest.