01/24/06

Northland College came into tonight's contest in Duluth with only three wins on the year but stunned the 9-8 Saints in a low scoring, somewhat sloppy affair, taking home a 49-45 victory.

There were 40 turnovers in the game, 17 by the Saints, and a total of 22 steals by the two teams.

The Saints held a slim 22-19 lead entering the intermission, made possible through a balanced scoring attack. Seven players scored for the Saints led by Sarah Klocke's 6 points. Meanwhile, only four players scored for the Lumberjills.

St. Scholastica managed to cling to their lead over the opening seven minutes in the second half but Northland was able to grab a 32-29 lead at the 12:32 mark, their first lead since 91 seconds into the opening half.

Jessie Stenberg put the Saints back into the lead with a long jumper, though, and after the Jills tied things up again, Klocke hit a 3-pointer for the Saints to recapture the lead.

The Saints stretched the lead and were ahead 41-36 with 5:19 to play but Northland scored the next five points to knot the score up at 41.

Ahead by 1, and with 49 seconds to play, Northland's Melissa Grego -- who would finish with a team-high 17 -- hit a clutch 3-pointer to push their lead to 4.

It was Klocke's turn to hit the clutch shot next, and she converted a 3-pointer with 35 seconds to play that cut the lead Lumberjill's lead to 1.

On the next inbounds play the desperate Saints almost registered another steal but lost the ball out of bounds instead. On the ensuing inbounds play from the sideline, Rachel Ehrhardt was able to break free past her Saints defender and nabbed a long pass down court, easily converting the lay up that gave Northland a 48-45 lead with 20 seconds left.

A desperation 3-pointer from the Saints with 9 seconds left was off the mark, forcing the Saints to foul. Northland converted one of two free throws that put the game out of reach for the host team.

Klocke finished with 19 points for St. Scholastica and Jen Kne added 13. The balanced scoring from the first half fell off drastically in the second, though. Klocke and Kne scored a combined 21 points in the second half for the Saints but the rest of the team scored only 2.