Box Score Box score
The chances were slim, but the Saints still harbored hopes that wins in their final two regular season games, along with some help from other conference teams, would carry them to one of the four berths in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference postseason tournament.
Those hopes were buried on Saturday afternoon with a 60-54 loss at Presentation College in Aberdeen, S.D.
A low scoring first half saw Presentation take a slim 20-19 lead into the intermission.
Neither team shot well from the floor in the opening 20 minutes with the hosts making 9-of-29 shots while St. Scholastica made only 7-of-30 including going 0-for-4 from behind the 3-point arc.
Both teams were more active in the second half, or at least took better aim.
St. Scholastica doubled up their opening half output with 15-of-41 shooting for 37 percent, but Presentation came out of the locker rooms just a bit better (42 percent for the half) and built an early nine point lead.
St. Scholastica made runs at the hosts, pulling with two points a couple of times and even within one just past the midway point of the final stanza.
Down four with 1:16 to play St. Scholastica was forced to foul to put Presentation on the free throw line, hoping to save seconds as well as hoping for a few misses.
Seconds they saved. Presentation misses...not so much.
The hosts hit 10 of 10 free throws down the stretch to ice the game and put an end to St. Scholastica's tournament thoughts.
Kirsten Haukom (Marshall, Minn./Marshall HS) led St. Scholastica's scorers with 15 points while senior Whitney Latham (Clear Lake, Minn./Becker HS) chipped in with a double-double -- 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Presentation was led by Chelsea Brandlee's 21 points and another 18 from Telishia Devericks.
The win for Presentation (12-12, 8-5 UMAC) leaves them in a tie for third place with Minn.-Morris whom they play in their season finale on Tuesday night.
St. Scholastica (9-14, 5-8 UMAC) closes out their season with a home match-up against second place Northland College on Tuesday night.
