ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – As the regular season winds down this week, the College of Saint Benedict basketball team faces its toughest test of the season Wednesday when it takes on No. 3 St. Thomas on the road. The only regular-season meeting between the two teams this season is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. on the UST campus in St. Paul.
 
About the Tommies
St. Thomas comes into Wednesday's contest 22-1 overall and 16-0 and in first in the MIAC. The Tommies clinched at last a share of the league's regular-season title Saturday with a win over Augsburg. UST's last – and only – loss this season was on Dec. 30 to Wartburg. Since then, the Tommies have won 12 straight. UST is currently second in the nation as a team with a .502 field-goal percentage and a .398 three-point percentage. Individually, senior standout Hannah Spaulding leads the country with a .714 field-goal percentage. She leads the league in scoring (17.0) and is third with 9.3 rebounds per game.
 
Last Meeting
CSB and UST met twice last season in the regular season, and the two games couldn't have been any different. The 13^th-ranked Tommies controlled the game the whole way in a 77-52 win on Jan. 20 in St. Joseph, and jumped to a big lead in the Feb. 17 meeting in St. Paul, but Saint Benedict came back and made things interesting before falling 67-64. Megan Thompson had 18 points and five rebounds in the second meeting and she and Sidney Schiffler each had 10 in the loss to the Tommies.
 
The Storyline
Saint Benedict clinched its spot in the MIAC Tournament Saturday with a close win at St. Olaf – now it's just playing for a higher seed. Heading into Wednesday, CSB and Gustavus are tied for fourth in the MIAC, and CSB has the tiebreaker thanks to its season sweep of the Gusties. UST is in the driver's seat of the conference standings, and looks to keep its streak going as the playoffs get set to start.
 
Who to Watch
Last week Schiffler played a key role in a pair of big MIAC wins for CSB, this week it was Thompson. She hit the game-winning free throws with 0.4 seconds left in overtime Wednesday in a win at Concordia, then drilled four free throws late to hold off St. Olaf, which cut an 11-point CSB lead down to four in the final two minutes of the game. Thompson finished with 24 points Saturday, and Alex Johnson, Maddie Schmitz, Schiffler and McKenzie Holgate all scored at least 10.