ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – After two overtimes and nearly two-and-a-half hours, the College of Saint Benedict basketball team came out on top in what head coach
Mike Durbin said may have been the longest game of his 33-year tenure at CSB.
CSB and Nebraska Wesleyan were tied at 61 after regulation and 67 at the end of the first overtime, but with 2.4 seconds left on the clock,
Maddie Schmitz scored her biggest basket of the night. With the score tied 75-75 thanks to a pair of NWU free throws with four seconds left, CSB took a timeout to advance the ball.
Haylee Fingalsen got the ball in to Schmitz, who drove past several Prairie Wolves defenders to score and put her team up. That also stopped the clock with 2.4 seconds left, but NWU's last-second shot just missed the rim and CSB held on for the win.
Saint Benedict had the chance to win in the first overtime. With the game tied at 67-67, CSB got a defensive rebound after a Nebraska Wesleyan miss, but turned the ball over. Another missed three by the Prairie Wolves gave CSB the ball back with 27 seconds left, but the team turned the ball over and
Alex Johnson's steal at the buzzer was too late to make a play.
CSB also had a decent shot at a regulation win. Fingalsen tied the game at 61 thanks to a pair of free throws with 39 seconds left, and
Breanna Gates got a steal with 30 seconds left on the clock. CSB took a timeout to advance the ball, and Johnson put up a floater with just over a second left on the clock, but it missed to send the game to overtime.
Saint Benedict (2-0) led 15-7 after the first quarter, and pushed its lead to 11 – 30-19 – at halftime. But the Prairie Wolves (1-2) wouldn't go away, and scored 25 third-quarter points to get within seven, 51-44, after three quarters. NWU took the lead for the first time on a pair of free throws midway through the fourth quarter, but
McKenzie Holgate hit a three to give the lead back to CSB, and Schmitz scored to tie the game at 59-59 before Fingalsen hit her late free throws to send the game to overtime.
Schmitz finished with a career-high 23 points and 17 rebounds to lead CSB, which shot 38 percent from the field. Johnson added 15 points and
Megan Thompson finished with 13. Johnson also had 10 rebounds and both Thompson and Schiffler had five assists. Johnson and
Breanna Gates both had four steals. CSB went 12-for-24 from the free-throw line and had 58 rebounds to NWU's 43. The team had 34 turnovers.
Klaire Phillips led the Priarie Wolves with 15 points and six steals and Carly Bostock added 14 and five rebounds. NWU shot just under 26 percent from the field, including just 1-for-10 from long range. The Prairie Wolves went 16-for-19 from the line and had 23 turnovers.
CSB returns to action at 3 p.m. Saturday against Simpson. The Storm used a solid defense and a full-court press to beat Saint Mary's 72-62 Friday evening.
