NORTHFIELD, Minn. – First years Rachel Kelly and Cassie Fix combined to score 35 points off the bench to propel the St. Olaf College women's basketball team to a 73-71 victory over Saint Mary's University (Minn.) on Saturday afternoon at Skoglund Center.
Kelly recorded her first-career 20-point game with a career-high 21 points on 9-for-12 shooting, while Fix shot 5-for-7 from the field on her way to a career-high 14 points for St. Olaf (8-9, 5-7 MIAC). The Oles led Saint Mary's (1-16, 1-11 MIAC) by eight with 42 seconds remaining but had to hold on when Brooklyn Paulson's potential game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer hit off the backboard, rim and fell out.
Paulson scored a game-high 27 points for the Cardinals, making five three-pointers and collecting eight rebounds in the game. Shayley Vesel added 18 points, eight rebounds and five steals but shot just 6-for-21 from the field and 4-for-15 from behind the arc.
Fix and Kelly helped the Oles to a 41-10 advantage in bench scoring in the win, as St. Olaf shot an even 50.0 percent (29-for-58) from the field but was just 7-for-18 (38.9 percent) from the free-throw line. Senior Britta Koenen was a third Ole in double figures with 14 points, six rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block.
St. Olaf opened the game on a 14-3 run over the first 6:08 thanks to four early points from both Kelly and Koenen. After trailing by 11 on three occasions, Saint Mary's closed the gap to seven, 19-12, after one as Paulson scored the final four points of the quarter.
A three-point play by Kelly two minutes into the second quarter pushed the Oles' lead back to 11, 25-14, but the Cardinals limited St. Olaf to just five points the rest of the quarter to go into the locker room down just four, 30-26. Saint Mary's shot just 6-for-28 (21.4 percent) from the field in the first half.
The Cardinals took their first lead since the first minute of the game on a three-pointer by Paulson with 5:21 to go in the third quarter but the lead lasted just 1:05. St. Olaf reclaimed a five-point lead on a three-pointer by Fix with 1:32 on the clock but Paulson hit a three-pointer in the closing seconds to send the teams to the fourth quarter tied at 49-49.
In the fourth quarter, senior Ella Skrien drained back-to-back three-pointers to push a two-point St. Olaf lead to eight, 67-58, with 3:12 remaining. With the Oles still leading by eight in the final minute, Paulson made back-to-back three-pointers and St. Olaf missed five-straight free throws to set up Paulson's last-second attempt that would not go.
Next up for the Oles is a home game against Hamline University on Wednesday, Jan. 29 at 7 p.m.