Zachary Tlusty-
This past weekend, there was a doubleheader on the Gus Young Court as the Women were matched up against Saint Benedict winning convincingly with a final score of 96-66. The Men played regular season champions Saint John’s, losing a game that came down to the final possession with the final score being 64-66.
The Gusties jumped out to an early lead for the Women’s game and never looked back. The Gusties forced two turnovers and a missed jump shot which led to the Gusties creating a 6-0 lead right after the starting tip. The women carried their moment to the half with a demanding lead of 46-25.
This has been a constant theme this year for the women; getting big leads and running up the score on their opponents. A big reason for this has been their transition offense which is sparked off of their hounding defense and forcing the other team into turning the ball over.
“As for defensively this season, we really try to make that our identity and what makes our game go. The biggest thing we changed recently is picking up teams full court and looking to pressure the ball to get tips and steals. We have caused lots of turnovers and difficult shots for teams, which leads to our transition offense that we thrive in,” Junior Kylie Baranick said.
The Women kept it up throughout the third quarter, adding 10 points to their lead to make it a 73-42 point game going into the 4th quarter. The game ended with a final score of 96-66, giving the Gusties their 16th conference victory. They continue to lead the MIAC. This puts their total season win record at 21-2.
Leading the score sheet for the Gusties was Senior Emma Kniefel, who had 16 points on 7-12 shooting in her 25 minutes of action. Senior Syd Hauger had 15 points and Baranick had 13 points while going 5-5 from the field.
“I’ve actually struggled recently with shooting, but just having continued confidence in myself and knowing that my team is behind me and believes in me on every shot really helps. Once one goes in, the hoop tends to get bigger, and getting some easy layups from passes from my teammates just gets you rolling even more,” Baranick said.
The next game for the Women will be played at 1:00 p.m. in St. Peter at Gus Young Court. This is their last regular season game before the start of the MIAC Playoffs.
The Men’s game started with both teams exchanging field goals in a tight contest. St. John’s started to break away with five minutes left in the first half. They led by as much as 11 in the first half. With the Gusties down nine with five seconds left in the first half, Junior Brady Kienitz hit a deep and much-needed three to cut the deficit to six. The score was 34-40 to end the first half with some momentum for the Gusties.
At the start of the second half, St. John’s got out to a quick start and increased their lead back to 11 with 16 minutes left to go in the game to make the score 48-37. Gusties were able to come back from St. John’s lead but were never able to cut the lead to less than 3 for most of the second half.
With 35 seconds left, Senior Wyatt Olson hit a contested layup to cut the lead down to two to make the score 64-66. With 34 seconds left, and being down two, the Gusties needed a stop. Which they got soon after. The Gusties forced St. Johns into their 21st turnover of the game. That gave the Gusties a final chance at either tying to force overtime or to win the game outright.
The Gusties opted to go for the win, shooting a three at the buzzer. But the 3-point effort by Senior Adam Biewen did not fall in and the Gusties lost 64-66 in a hard-fought game against the regular season MIAC Champs.
“I think that the biggest thing for us moving forward is just to stay locked in. We are playing good basketball on both ends, just need to take care of a few minor problems and we will be fine. Taking it one day at a time right now as we are in the last week is a huge piece to our success in the coming weeks as well,” Senior Spencer Swanson said.
Despite the loss, the defense played great. St. John’s has only been under 70 points twice before this game.
“We had a really solid game plan of how we were going to guard these guys. Our main objective was to take away their three-pointers. They only made 5 when they average 9 or 10 a game. Forcing 21 turnovers was also something we were proud of as they usually only turn it over 9 times per game. We had a high focus on pressuring them when they had the ball and being the aggressors on defense. They aren’t used to being guarded this way so I think they got a bit flustered and made some uncharacteristic mistakes. We used our physical advantage to force them to take tough shots,” Biewen said.
To lead the score sheet was Swanson with 23 points and nine rebounds. Olson had 14 points and went 8-9 from the free throw line with 7 rebounds to go along with that.
“I think the guys were just finding me and we all were focused on getting to our spots early. As a group, we are all such willing passers and only care about making the right play every single time down the court,” Swanson said.
The Men will play their next game in St. Peter this Saturday at 3:00 p.m. vs. Hamline.