Women's Basketball | 02/20/2020

The College of Saint Benedict basketball team's playoff hopes ended Wednesday with a loss to St. Kate's, but the Bennies look to wrap up the 2019-20 season strong Saturday as they head to St. Paul to take on Bethel. Tip-off is scheduled for 3 p.m. against the 11^th-ranked Royals.
 
About the Royals
Bethel clinched the MIAC regular-season title with a big win over a tough Augsburg squad. The Royals are are 22-1 overall and 17-1 in the MIAC, and their only loss comes from a game earlier this month at Saint Mary's. They are 9-0 at home and average 75.5 points per game, while giving up just 54.9 to their opponents. Leading scorer for Bethel is Taite Anderson who has 461 points this season. There are four other players for the Royals who have 200-plus points as well: Haylee Barker, Makenna Pearson, Elizabeth Schwarz, and Kat Brown-Erdal. Anderson leads the MIAC in scoring (21.1 ppg) and field-goal percentage (.649).
 
Last Meeting
The last time that these two teams met was earlier this season in January, and CSB lost 69-53. The team hung with Bethel for three quarters, but a five-point second doomed the team in the loss. Sidney Schiffler led Saint Bens with 13 points and Maddie Schmitz also scored double digits that game with 10 points to go along with 9 rebounds. Alex Johnson also had nine rebounds, helping to give CSB 31 rebounds at the end of the game, with Bethel only having 26. Overall against Bethel, Saint Bens is 44-12 and 21-6 away.
 
Storyline
With this being Saint Bens last game of the season, the Bennies are looking to go out with a win – and this would be a big win. Saint Bens will be gradating two key seniors this year, lead scorer and key 3-point shooter Sidney Schiffler and Alex Johnson who is leading the team in rebounds, and is also one of the top scorers for the Bennies. This is also the final game for Megan Thompson, who leads the team in scoring and is graduating early.
 
Who to Watch
CSB is averaging 61.6 points per game. Thompson leads the team with 11.3 points per game, and Schiffler is right behind with 10.7. Shae Olsen has the highest field goal percentage with .463, and Thompson also leads the team in number of steals with 42. Johnson leads the team with 8.3 rebounds per game.