ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – Last season it took the College of Saint Benedict basketball team until the MIAC Tournament to pick up its 16^th win of the year. This season, CSB reached win No. 16 with seven games left in the regular season.
 
After picking up its first MIAC loss of the season Saturday against St. Thomas, Saint Benedict bounced back Wednesday night to defeat Hamline 71-58 in Claire Lynch Hall. The win pushes CSB's record to 16-2 overall and 10-1 in the MIAC. It is still the best overall start since 2010-11 when the team also started 16-2, and leaves CSB just one conference win shy of matching its MIAC win total from last season when it went 11-7.
 
CSB took an early lead on the Pipers (4-14, 3-8) when, midway through the first quarter, Haylee Fingalsen and Sidney Schiffler hit back-to-back threes and Alex Johnson hit a pair of free throws to put the team up 20-9. Hamline countered with a pair of threes, and cut the gap to five, 22-17, at the end of the quarter. The Pipers kept things close to start the second, but Schiffler hit a three and converted a three-point play to make it an 11-point game again, 32-21, and a pair of layups by Maddie Schmitz helped Saint Benedict maintain a 40-30 lead at halftime.
 
Saint Benedict held on to a double-digit lead throughout much of the third quarter, and a layup by Breanna Gates put CSB up 56-41 heading into the fourth, and the team was able to hang onto that double-digit lead in the fourth, despite not scoring for the first three minutes of the quarter. A pair of Hamline layups cut the gap to 10, 66-56, with 1:22 to play, and again with 31 seconds left, but Guetter hit a three in the final 11 seconds of the game to help CSB hold on for the win.
 
Niki Fokken finished with a team-high 16 points for CSB and Guetter and Schiffler both added 15. Schiffler went 4-for-6 from the field and 5-for-5 from the line. Kate Banovetz had 12 rebounds for CSB, which outrebounded the Pipers 41-25. CSB shot 45 percent from the field and went 13-for-23 from the line – including 8-for-8 in the first quarter. Saint Benedict had 14 turnovers.
 
Alaina Quaranta led all scorers with 24 points for Hamline, which shot 44.4 percent from the field and went 5-for-8 from the line. The Pipers had 16 turnovers.
 
CSB is back on the road Saturday, Jan. 27, when it travels to Arden Hills to take on a Bethel squad that is on a two-game winning streak and has won 10 of its last 11 games with its only loss in that span coming to St. Thomas.