ST. PETER, Minn. – The Gustavus women’s basketball team hosted Bethel on Monday evening and honored their four senior players, Rachel Skyberg (Sr., Pipestone), Gabby Bowlin (Sr., Winona), Marisa Gustafson (Sr., Mahtomedi), and Ava Gonsorowski (Sr., Esko). The 72-65 keeps the team undefeated and on top of the standings, 5-0.
Gustafson got on the board for the Gusties to hold a small lead before retaliation from Bethel. The Gusties felt the pressure with a couple costly turnovers. Maddy Rice (So., Forest Lake) led the team with four points before the Gusties trailed the Royals 19-15 before heading into the second quarter.
The teams would continue to tie each other up throughout the second quarter as well as both teams forcing double digit turnovers. The Gusties would end the first half on top of a 27-26 score with Richert leading the pack on six points and six rebounds.
Gustavus would come out stronger in the second half and take a larger lead. Both teams took timeouts to clean up on turnovers and the Gusties took a game changing 47-42 lead before the final frame.
The Gusties dominated on their .67 free throw percentage to the Royals .25 to hold onto their lead. The team found strength in their thirty bench points as Caitlin Rorman (So., Blue Earth) scored a team leading 13 points and Paige Richert (Sr., Comfrey) had 11 rebounds for the 72-65 win over Bethel.
“I give Bethel a lot of credit,” said Head Coach Laurie Kelly. “The game was very much the tempo and style they wanted to play. They forced a lot of turnovers which isn’t typical of us so I give our team credit for battling and sometimes you just have to win ugly and today that was kind of our game. Not our greatest game as a team and we struggled with pressure because it’s harder to simulate that type of play in a practice. This was our last night on Gus Young Court for four incredible seniors that will be missed in our program. After tonight we’re rolling up our sleeves to get ready for St. Thomas on Wednesday.”