On Wednesday, February 25, the Saint Xavier women’s basketball team played in the quarterfinals of the CCAC women’s basketball tournament against Indiana University-South Bend. The Cougars had control of this game for its majority thanks to a major run to end the first half.
The first half started with Indiana going on a 6-3 run to begin the game. After that, the Cougars went on their own run, scoring 12 out of the next 14 points to take a 15-8 lead with 16:11 left in the first half. From there, the Titans and the Cougars would trade buckets with each other, resulting in St. Xavier having a 21-15 lead with 12:36 left in the first half.
From here, the Cougars would go on a massive run of 15-0 to push their lead to 36-15 with 8:01 left in the first half. From this point, the Cougars would go on another longer run, outscoring Indiana 14-7 over the next eight minutes to go into halftime with a 50-22 lead.
The start of the second half was reminiscent of the game before Saint Xavier went on their big runs, as both teams battled hard with each other for several minutes. The Cougars would have a 67-43 lead with 13:31 left in the game.
The Titans would go on a run of 12-4 to close the deficit to 71-55 with 9:50 left in the second half. After some pushback from the Cougars, Indiana would go on another run, with Saint Xavier leading 74-55, of 10-0 to minimize their gap to 74-65 with 2:33 left to play. But that would be as close as Indiana would get, as the Cougars would hold them off and win the conference quarterfinal 80-68.
Morgan Stuut had another incredulous performance, scoring 20 points and collecting 17 rebounds for her 21st double-double of the season as well as recording five assists, two blocks, and five steals. Caitlin McMahon also had a double-double, recording 15 points and 12 rebounds.
Guards Kara Krolicki and Suzie Broski both scored double digit points with 13 and 11 points respectively. Guard Mikayla Leyden came just short of a double-double, scoring nine points and dishing out a game high 10 assists. Brittany Collins also scored double-digit points with 10 of them while also collecting six rebounds.
The Cougars really dominated in the first half of this game both offensively and defensively. The Cougars hit 52.6% of their shots from the field in the first half and shot 83.3% from the free throw line in the first half. The defense shut the Titans’ offense down, holding them to just 32.3% from the field, including a paltry 14.3% from the three point line.
With the win, the women’s had won 17 straight games, tying a program record for most consecutive wins. The win also pushed them to the CCAC women’s basketball semifinals and pushed their overall record to 28-2.
On February 27, the Saint Xavier women’s basketball team played St. Francis in a CCAC women’s basketball tournament semifinal. The Cougar defense put on a clinic in this game against their rivals, holding them down the the entire game.
From the very beginning of this game, you knew that this one was going to be a game that only fans of great defense would love. This was evident when neither team scored a point until there was 17:58 left in the first half.
The first points went to Saint Xavier off of a layup by Mikayla Leyden. After Saint Xavier pushed their lead to 4-1 with 16:43 left, neither of these teams would score another point until exactly two minutes later when Kara Krolicki would hit a layup to give St. Xavier a 6-1 lead. After a three by the Fighting Saints to close the gap to 6-4, the Cougars would go on a 9-0 run to extend their lead to 15-4 with 11:20 left in the first half.
After scoring two points off of free throws with 10:18 left in the half, St. Francis would be shut down for the next few minutes as St. Xavier would go on a 6-0 run to push their lead to 23-16 with 7:05 left in the half.
Following some back and forth action from both teams, and with Saint Xavier leading 25-9 with 6:08 left in the first half, these teams would not score a point until their was 4:38 left in the frame. Saint Xavier would extend their lead to 30-11 with 3:56 left in the half.
For the third time in this half, neither team scored a point for a long period of time. The next basket for either team would come with 1:47 left in the half as the Fighting Saint would cut the Cougar lead to 30-14. From here, St. Xavier would go on a 5-0 run to go into halftime leading 35-14.
The Cougar defense did not skip a beat to start the second half, holding St. Francis scoreless for the first three minutes of the half to allow themselves to go up 42-14 with 17:10 left in the second half. After some see-saw action for the next minute, the Cougars and the Fighting Saints once again went through a long defensive stand, not allowing either team to score until there was 14:40 left in the game.
From there, these teams would trade points with each other, resulting in a 49-21 Saint Xavier lead with 13:20 left in the half. Once again in this half, these teams had a halt to their scoring, not scoring another point until there was 11:52 left in the contest.
And as if two times were not enough, these teams would do this for a third time, resulting in a point not being scored until there was 9:39 left in the game, with St. Xavier leading 53-23.
From there, the scoring would pick up, with both teams battling in a back and forth battle until the very end.
With Saint Xavier up 67-37 with 3:16 left in the game, St. Francis would go on a 10-4 run, but it was too little too late as the Cougars would take this game by a score of 71-47.
The Cougars domination of their rival was due to their stifling defense.
The Cougars held St. Francis to shooting just 21.2% from the field for the game. Their defense also forced 15 turnovers that resulted in 16 points. An even more remarkable stat in this game is the points in the paint differential.
The Cougars scored 46 points in the paint in the game. The Fighting Saints only scored two points in the paint the entire game. I’m not making this up, they literally scored only two points from within 10 feet of the basket. The Cougars also dominated the boards in this contest, outrebounding their opposition 59-38.
Leyden scored a career high 22 points in this contest as well as collecting six rebounds and matching a career high five steals. Morgan Stuut had another good game, scoring eight points, recording eight assists, and collecting a game high 20 rebounds. Krolicki was the only other player to score in double digits for the Cougars with 12 points.
With the win, the Cougars have won their 18th consecutive game, breaking the all-time program record for most wins in a row. Their record sits at 29-2 and they advanced to the CCAC women’s basketball tournament finals.
On Saturday, the women battled the #6 ranked team in the NAIA and the #2 seed in the CCAC women’s basketball tournament, Cardinal Stritch University in the finals of the CCAC women’s basketball tournament.
The Cougars offense was the downfall of the team in this one as they could not muster up enough offense to keep up with their opponents. The first half did not start out well for the Cougars, finding themselves down 9-2 to Cardinal Stritch University with 17:11 left in the first half. Saint Xavier would come back though, going on a 5-2 run to close the gap to 11-7 with 14:41 left until intermission.
Reminiscent of the semifinal that took place the day before, the Cougars and their opposition did not score a point for an extended period of time. The next score would come with 12:10 left in the half, where Cardinal Stritch would take a 13-7 lead. After a three pointer by Suzie Broski to cut their deficit to 13-10 with 11:55 left in the half, these two teams would once again engage in a defensive battle, not surrendering another point until there was 8:40 left.
After some back and forth action, with Saint Xavier down 17-14 with 6:39 left, these teams went on another defense-induced scoring drought until there was 5:33 left in the half, this time the basket to break the ice coming off of a steak and layup by Mikayla Leyden.
From there, the Wolves would push their lead to a score of 23-18 with 4:43 left in the half. For the third time in this half, these teams would not score a bucket for an extended period of time. The next points would not come until there was 2:35 left in the half. At this point, Cardinal Stritch would go on a run of 10-4 and go into halftime leading 33-22.
The second half would start out with both teams not scoring, again, until there was 18:04 left in the game. From there, the scoring picked up, but the Cougars could not make up the ground they needed to in order to really push the #6 ranked team in the NAIA and the #2 seed in the CCAC women’s conference tournament.
These two teams battled throughout the second half, proving that these two teams should indeed be considered as two of the favorites to win the NAIA National Championship. Down 53-42 with 9:24 left in the game, the Cougars made one last desperate push to try and take this game away from their rivals, going on an 8-2 run to cut the Wolves’ lead to 55-50 with 5:18 left in the final. It was not meant to be though, as Cardinal Stritch would push the lead back up to 61-50 with 4:20 left to play.
Then the famous, or infamous depending on which side your were rooting for, scoring drought struck once again as neither team could put the ball in the hoop until there was 2:39 left in the game.
From there, the Wolves and the Cougars would battle back and forth with each other for the remainder of the game and Cardinal Stritch would win this one 72-58. The Cougars suffered from a bad offensive day in this game.
The Cougars only shot 34.3% from the field, and an even worse 21.2% from behind the three point line. On top of that, the Cougars could not stop getting in their own way, turning the ball over 18 times, which resulted in 18 Cardinal Stritch points, in the CCAC women’s basketball tournament final.
Kara Krolicki led the way in points with 15 of them. Also scoring in double digits were Leyden and Caitlin McMahon. Leyden scored 11 points and had six assists, while McMahon also scored 11 points and had three blocks in the game.
Morgan Stuut led the team with 13 rebounds. She also scored eight points, and had a game high five blocks. The rare loss for the Saint Xavier women’s basketball team was the first time that the team had lost in three months. The loss dropped their record to 29-3 overall.
The Cougars will now wait until the March 4 selection show at 7 PM to see where they will be placed in the bracket.
John Romando
Senior Sports Editor
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