Box Score Box score
It took almost two minutes for St. Scholastica to score their first basket, but their second basket in Saturday's game at Presentation College in Aberdeen, S.D., gave them a lead they wouldn't relinquish the rest of the way in an 84-77 victory that completed a two-win road trip.
A Saints halftime lead of 44-37 blossomed to a 19 point lead with 8:05 to play before the hosts would cut that down to it's final seven point margin.
Andy Schmitz led the Saints (10-14, 8-5 UMAC) in scoring for the third game in a row, hitting 7-of-10 from the floor -- including 6-of-7 from behind the 3-point line -- for 22 points. He registered a pair of assists and had three steals in the win.
St. Scholastica's leading scorer for the season, Brady Zubke (Laporte, Minn./Park Rapids Area HS), scored 19 while Eric Langdon (Cloquet, Minn./Cloquet Senior HS) (14 points) and Troy Miller (Stillwater, Minn./Stillwater HS) (12) also reached double-digits.
Lucas Bruns and Richie Ward did all they could to keep Presentation (7-17, 5-8 UMAC) in the contest, Bruns scoring a game-high 28 points and Ward adding 24 in the losing effort. No other Presentation player had more than four points.
The win allows St. Scholastica to keep pace with both Martin Luther College and Minn.-Morris in the league standings.
Martin Luther upset top-seeded Northwestern on Saturday while Morris defeated Northland to put all three teams at 8-5 in the league vying for the final two spots in the UMAC's four-team postseason tournament.
St. Scholastica's final regular season game is against 1-12 Northland while Morris has to play sixth place Presentation and Martin Luther must face second place Bethany Lutheran. All three games are on Tuesday night, Feb. 19.
Northwestern, despite Saturday's loss, has clinched the top spot in the standings and will host the semifinals and finals of the tournament on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 22-23, at home in Rosemount, Minn.
