St. Thomas Women's Basketball blew open a close game with a 26-point explosion in the third quarter to defeat UW-River Falls 67-46 Saturday and advance to the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Division III tournament for the fourth time in five years.

The No. 8-ranked Tommies (26-3) trailed River Falls (22-6) by six points midway through the second quarter before going on a 10-0 run to close the half and lead 27-23 at the break.

The onslaught continued in the third quarter, when St. Thomas scored the first seven points and 14 of the first 15 to take a 41-24 lead.

The Falcons went more than nine minutes without a field goal and scored only seven points in the quarter, which ended with the Tommies ahead 53-30.

Junior center Kaitlin Langer, the MIAC Player of the Year, led St. Thomas with 25 points and 11 rebounds for her 17th double-double of the season. She also had 25 points and 11 rebounds in Friday's opening-round win over Loras.

Senior guard Katie Stone scored 12 and junior forward Lauren Fischer had nine, all on perfect 3 for 3 shooting on 3-pointers.

St. Thomas shot slightly better than River Falls – 40 percent to 37 percent – but forced 14 turnovers while committing only seven and outrebounded the Falcons 41-33.

The Tommies' five 3-pointers against River Falls gave them 223 on the season, extending their school and MIAC records. Stone had only two 3-pointers but extended her St. Thomas and MIAC season records to 81, and she now has 202 for her 101-game career.

The win was the 16th in a row for St. Thomas since Jan. 9 and extended the four-year record of this year's seniors to 105-15 (.875).

The Tommies have an all-time NCAA tournament record of 45-22 (.672) in 23 appearances since 1984.

River Falls won the WIAC regular-season title and took second in the conference playoffs. In defeating No. 17 Wheaton on Friday night, the Falcons shot 56 percent from the floor, including 6 of 13 (46 percent) from beyond the arc. They also outrebounded Wheaton 49-28.