Box Score

Box score

The Saints held a three point lead less than two minutes into tonight's game at Bethany Lutheran College, but that would be the only highlight on the scoreboard for St. Scholastica as the Vikings led from that point on to the final buzzer in their 66-44 Upper Midwest Athletic Conference victory in Mankato on Friday night.

St. Scholastica (7-12, 5-2 UMAC) drops out of a second place tie with Bethany and Minn.-Morris in the league standings after the road loss. Meanwhile, Bethany (7-12, 6-2) remains one game back from the conference leader, Northwestern College.

Four out of five starters got their first starts of the season tonight for St. Scholastica. The other starter, Kyle Allen (Black River Falls, Wis./Black River Falls HS), picked up only his second start of the season and finished with a team-high 13 points in the loss.

Neither team shot exceptionally well from the floor. Bethany finished at 41 percent while the Saints followed up an opening 20 minutes of 41 percent shooting with a colder 33 percent in the second half.

Rebounds were fairly even between the two teams -- 37 by Bethany and 33 from the Saints -- but turnovers and shot attempts were the two big differences in the contest.

The Saints committed 25 turnovers and took only 46 shots in the game. Bethany took 65 shots and turned the ball over only 14 times by comparison.

Last weeks game was a bruising affair with 40 fouls called but tonight's match-up was milder with only 28 whistles. Here, too, the Saints trailed the Vikings hitting only 7-of-13 from the charity stripe while Bethany was a nearly perfect 9-for-11.

The Saints will try to regroup quickly as they continue their weekend road trip with a visit to Martin Luther College on Saturday afternoon.