Box Score

The Saints opened up their 2007-08 schedule with a strong start, and finish, in Friday evening's opener at the UW-Stevens Point Tournament as they watched a seven point halftime lead over the Milwakuee School of Engineering disappear in the opening moments of the second half, only to rally back for a 60-53 win.

St. Scholastica (1-0) raced out to an 18-8 lead over MSOE (0-1) as the opening half worked it's way past the midway point, then led by 13 with 7:36 to go in the half.

MSOE trimmed that lead down to three at 28-25 with 1:02 left but the Saints scored two more buckets to take a seven point margin into the locker room at the game's intermission.

As hot as the Saints were in the first half, 50 percent shooting from the floor, MSOE sizzled through the opening minutes of the second half, scoring nine straight points to jump in front 34-32 before a Kelly Cinquegrani (Buffalo, Minn./Buffalo HS) jumper broke the run for St. Scholastica's first points of the half.

It was MSOE that continued to roll following Cinquegrani's basket, stretching out to a seven point lead twice over the next five minutes.

Sophomore guard Kirsten Haukom (Marshall, Minn./Marshall HS) cut the lead to five with a jumper, then senior Whitney Latham (Clear Lake, Minn./Becker HS) sank a pair of free throws to bring the Saints within three.

Haukom's three-pointer evened the score at 43-43 with 8:06 to play and after Jessica Nichols sank the second of two free throws 20 seconds later, the Saints would never trail on the way to their season-opening win.

Haukom and MSOE's Dana Guthrie each had 21 points to lead their team's in scoring. Latham added 15 for the Saints and contributed a game-high seven assists in the win.

Haukom pulled down six offensive rebounds and three more on the defensive end to tie Nichols' three offensive and six defensive boards for the game's rebounding leaders.

Cinquegrani scored six points in her freshman debut for the Saints but was a devil defensively, registering as many steals, four, individually as MSOE had as a team. The Saints had 13 steals collectively.

Their win over MSOE puts the Saints in the championship game of the tournament where they face host UW-Stevens Point, an 85-60 winner over Augsburg in Friday's other action.

Box score