SAINT PETER, Minn. – The Gustavus women’s basketball travels to Winona to face St. Mary’s for a 7 p.m. contest. The Gusties enter 2-0 both overall and in the conference, while the Cardinals are 1-2 overall and 0-2 in the conference.
The Series: Wednesday’s contest marks the 81st all-time meeting between the two teams with Gustavus leading the series 54-26. The two teams met last season with the Gusties falling 75-66 in overtime.
LAST TIME OUT: The Gustavus women’s basketball team came out on top of Saint Ben’s in its home opener with a final score of 76-66.
Caitlin Rorman (So., Blue Earth) got the scoring started just a minute into the game assisted by Ava Gonsorowski (Sr., Esko). Saint Ben’s tied the score twice, the second time at 10-10, but the Gusties responded with a 15-10 run to close out the first quarter with a 25-20 lead.
Gabby Bowlin (Sr., Winona) set the tone in the second quarter with a layup assisted by Rorman. Rorman would put up another assist, a jump shot, and a pair of rebounds for Gustavus to dominate with a 21-point lead (45-24) at halftime.
The Bennies came back defensively in the third quarter but Paige Richert (Sr., Comfrey) had a stellar seven rebounds and two blocks for the Gusties to maintain a 27-point lead before the fourth quarter.
Saint Ben’s outscored the Gusties 33-16 in the fourth quarter, but Gustavus held strong at the end for the 76-66 win.
The Gusties found strength down low with 52 points in the paint compared to the Bennies’ 20 points and demonstrated their persistence in smaller battles totaling 24 second-chance points.
Caitlin Rorman led the team in points with 14 and Paige Richerts had a double-double with 10 points and 14 rebounds. The Gusties shot 40% from the field and had 52 rebounds opposed to the Bennies’ 32.
SCOUTING THE CARDINALS: St. Mary’s has started its season 1-2, most recently falling to St. Thomas 80-51. The Cardinals are led statistically by Brooklyn Paulson who ranks fourth in the conference on points totaling 56 with an average of 18.7 points per game. Claire Patterson leads in free throws scoring 11 of her 14 attempts. Maggie Robertson has a team high of 17 rebounds, averaging 5.7 a game. The Cardinals have scored 70 or more points in each of their last five wins. St. Mary’s leads the conference in 3 pt. percentage (38.6) as well as steals per game (10.3).