Box Score The St. Scholastica women's basketball team rode an explosive first half to a 79-71 victory over the Finlandia Lions at Reif Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon.

The victory over the Lions (2-11) gives the Saints a two-game winning streak after they began the season 0-6.

The Saints came out firing early in the first half jumping out to a 4-0 lead.  Finlandia's three-point shooting would keep the game within reach for the first ten minutes of the half as the CSS lead was as little as six with 11 minutes to go. 

Finlandia has averaged shooting 22.4 three pointers per game and the team didn't slow down in this game taking 15 in the first half alone.  As the half went on, the Lions began missing more threes than they made, allowing CSS to pull ahead.  The Saints went on runs of 11, 13, and ended the half with four straight to take a 54-25 lead into halftime. 

The Saints came out hot again in the second half scoring the first five points to extend their lead to 34.  The lead would get as big as 36 for CSS and the lead was 30 when the Lions went on a 17-0 run to cut the lead to 74-61 with 3:40 left in the game.  The Lions made three three-pointers during the five minute run. 

St. Scholastica would hold on to the lead as Finlandia was forced to foul and CSS went on to win by the final of 79-71.

The Saints had four players score in double figures with the team leaders being Kayla Heisler (Remer, Minn./Northland HS) and Mariah Hovick (Prior Lake, Minn./Prior Lake HS) who both put up 18 points.  Erin Frase (Phillips, Wis./Phillips HS (UW-River Falls)) had 13 points and Taylor Fellbaum (Minong, Wis./Northwood HS) added 10.

Hovick earned a double-double as she led the team with 10 rebounds.  Frase and Laura Amys (South Range, Wis./Superior HS) added seven rebounds a piece on a day that the Saints outrebounded the Lions 53-42.

The Saints shot 34.9% (30-86) from the field and went 5-20 (25%) from three-point land.

Finlandia went 11-28 (39.3%) from beyond the arc to raise its season average of three-point shots to 22.9/game on the season. 

The Saints (2-6) will be back in action next Saturday when they travel across the bridge to take on the University of Wisconsin-Superior Yellowjackets (4-4) at 5 p.m.  Stay tuned to csssaints.com for coverage of the game.