MANKATO, Minn. – The College of Saint Benedict basketball team and Bethany Lutheran College went point-for-point with each other for three quarters, but CSB went cold in the third quarter in a 73-62 loss Saturday afternoon in Mankato.
 
The loss – CSB's third straight after starting the season 6-0 – wraps up both nonconference play and the 2019 portion of the team's schedule. Saint Benedict is now 6-3 overall heading into 2020, and the majority of the team's MIAC games.
 
Bethany Lutheran (7-2) led by four, 43-39, with six minutes left to play in the third, but Sidney Schiffler hit a there and Alex Johnson scored to put CSB up one, 44-43, a lead the Bennies would hold the remainder of the quarter. Johnson scored in the final minute of the third to put CSB up, 52-49, heading into the final 10 minutes of play.
 
The Vikings came out hot in the fourth quarter, however, and took the lead for good. BLC scored in the first minute and went on a 12-0 run that spanned the first four-plus minutes of the quarter to go up nine, 61-52, with 5:47 to play. Megan Thompson hit a three to make it a six-point game, and later McKenzie Holgate hit a three and drained two free throws to get CSB within three, 63-60, with 4:05 to play, but that's as close as CSB would get.

After Holgate's free throws, the Bennies didn't score again until Sidney Schiffler scored on a jumper with 41 seconds left to make it an eight-point game. The Vikings, meanwhile, added 10 more points to their total to pull away for the win.
 
The first two and a half quarters were close throughout as the game was tied 13 times and the lead changed 12 times. Bethany Lutheran led 8-4 early, and CSB took its first lead of the game at 10-8 on a three from Haylee Finaglsen. Another three from Fingalsen put CSB up 16-14 late in the quarter, and the team led 17-15 after one.
 
Neither team led by more than three points in the second quarter as a BLC layup made it 22-19 in favor of the Vikings with 6:43 left in the half. A three-point play from Thompson put CSB back up, 29-28, and a pair of free throws from Maddie Schmitz left both teams with 33 points heading into halftime. The two teams traded baskets to start the second half and set up the big ending for the Vikings.
 
Fingalsen scored a career-high 14 points to pace CSB, which shot just over 38 percent from the field. The team made three field goals in the fourth quarter. Fingalsen went 5-for-7 from the field, including a pair of 3-pointers. Johnson added 12 points and four rebounds and Thompson and Holgate both added eight points for the Bennies, who hit six threes and went 14-for-20 from the line.
 
Hanna Geistfeld led all players with 31 points for BLC, and she also had seven rebounds. The Vikings shot 45.2 percent from the field, went 12-for-16 from the line and had a 43-31 advantage on the boards. Bethany Lutheran had 19 turnovers to CSB's 15.
 
Saint Benedict is back in action and returns home Saturday, Jan. 4, when it hosts Augsburg, which is ranked 16^th in the latest d3hoops.com top 25 poll.