Hamline's women's bb team started fast and finished even faster. As a result, they recorded their sixth straight victory, a 69-64 triumph over St. Olaf, to inch ever closer to the school's first postseason berth since 2009.

The Pipers, now 12-7 in league play (12-10 overall) , are now  tied with Gustavus for fifth place in the league with three games to play. They need one win or a St. Olaf loss in one of those games to clinch a place in the conference postseason.

One game after being held scoreless, senior guard Kara Poirier (pictured) tied her career high with 26 points, including six of seven from three point range. She also connected on her six of her free throw attempts in the final 90 seconds of play to salt the game away.

Steph Pilgrim, the conference leader in scoring, added 13 points while Jordan Sammons kicked in 12 (with nine rebounds and five steals) and Je'Naya Brown added 11.

HU flew out of the gate to a 21-6 lead in the first 10 minutes only to see the Oles chop the lead to 27-24 by halftime. STO started the second half on a 27-16 run to take a 49-40 advantage with 11:13 left. It was still a seven point lead at 53-46 when Poirier and Pilgrim sandwiched three-pointers around a Brown layup to put HU back in front with seven minutes.

It went back and forth for the next four and a half minutes until Sammons stole the ball at midcourt and went the distance for a layup that gave HU a 62-60 lead with 2:24 remaining.

The Pipers kept  the lead the rest of the way, thanks to Poirier's free throw markmanship and a Sammons effort.

The six-game winning streak is the second longest in school history. Hamline had a seven-game run in February 1986. 

HU now faces conference co-leader Concordia (16-3, 17-5) Saturday at Hutton Arena in a 1:00 p.m. start. Hamline defeated the Cobbers in OT in Moorhead last month. The team finishes the regular season next week against Bethel (home, Feb. 13) and at Carleton (Feb. 16)