Box score

What played out as a tight opening 20 minutes on Friday night in Morris, Minn., turned out better in the end for the host Cougars of Minn.-Morris as they pulled away from a cold-shooting Saints team in the second half of a 75-59 Upper Midwest Athletic Conference victory.

St. Scholastica (9-13, 5-7 UMAC) and Morris (14-9, 8-4 UMAC) were evenly matched in the first half. The largest Cougars lead was by only six points and the half ended with the Saints trailing by two, 34-32.

Morris was able to maintain their shooting edge in the second half replicating their 44 percent shooting from the field of the opening frame, but the Saints shot only 25 percent in the final 20 minutes, a long drop off from their 12-for-27 (44 %) performance of the first half.

The Saints gave an edge to Morris with 21 turnovers that resulted in 28 Cougar points, and were also out rebounded 44 to 31 in the contest.

Whitney Latham (Clear Lake, Minn./Becker HS) led the Saints with 11 points in the first half and finished with a game-high 23, almost as many (27) as the Saints scored total in the second half.

Tynell Cocer led Morris with 16 points while teammate Coresa Leighty registered a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds.

The loss was possibly devastating  to sixth place St. Scholastica's hopes of climbing up to fourth place -- the final UMAC Tourney spot -- in the league standings.

With only two games to play the Saints must beat both Presentation on Sat., Feb. 16 and then Northland on Feb. 19 to pull to 7-7 in the conference. Even then, they'd have to hope that Northland loses to Morris on Saturday and then that Morris defeats Presentation on Tuesday to forge even a tie for fourth place.

However, standing between the Saints and that tie with Presentation is a 6-6 Bethany Lutheran squad whom the Saints also have to hope drop their final two games of the UMAC regular season.