ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Going into Saturday afternoon's regular-season finale, the College of Saint Benedict and Bethel basketball teams already knew they'd be seeing each other again in the first round of the MIAC women's basketball playoffs Tuesday night.
 
The only question was where that game would be played. Junior Carla Meyer and her teammates made sure the answer was Claire Lynch Hall.
 
Meyer finished with 17 points, five assists and two rebounds as the Bennies jumped out to a 12-point halftime lead, then held off a Royals' comeback attempt down the stretch to beat Bethel 66-58 at the Robertson Center in Arden Hills.
 
The victory means CSB (14-8 MIAC, 17-8 overall) will be the No. 4 seed in next week's conference postseason and will play host to the fifth-seeded Royals (12-10, 12-13) in the first round at 7 p.m. Tuesday in St. Joseph. CSB has the most wins in a season (17) and conference wins (14) since 2017-18 when they were 22-5 and 16-2 in the MIAC.
 
The winner of that MIAC quarterfinal game will advance to play at either No. 2 seed Concordia or No. 1 seed Gustavus in the semifinals at 7 p.m. Thursday (the Gusties will host the lowest seed left remaining). The championship game is scheduled for 3 p.m. Saturday on the home court of the high seed with the MIAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament on the line.
 
"We knew we needed to keep moving forward because we wanted a home game on Tuesday," said Meyer, who now has 49 double-digit scoring games in her career. "It's huge to make that happen, especially for our seniors. It's nice to get at least one more game at home for them."
 
CSB expanded its lead to as wide as 15 on a jump shot by Meyer early in the third quarter, but Bethel was able to cut the gap to as little as five twice – once late in the third quarter, then again at 53-48 with 9:05 to play in the fourth. Meyer hit 7-of-13 shots from the field including her 111th career three-pointer.
 
Each time, though, the Bennies were able to weather the storm.
 
"I thought we had extraordinarily good execution on both ends of the floor," CSB coach Mike Durbin said, who picked up his 732nd career win. "I hope we can make a couple of adjustments by Tuesday. But we played with poise. Wednesday night we rushed a lot of shots (in a 63-60 loss at Macalester). Today we didn't."
 
Sophomore Sophia Jonas finished with 13 points, including four 3-pointers. It was the 24th time that Jonas hit three or more triples in a game. CSB's season record holder in made three-pointers, she now has 77 on the season which is sixth in DIII. In addition, she now has 121 career three-pointers for eighth all-time. Senior Tori Szathmary, the reigning MIAC Defensive Player of the Week, continued her strong play in that regard. She had 10 rebounds, four points, three assists and two steals. She now has 11 career double-digit rebound games. Also for the Bennies, first-year guard Megan Morgan added nine points, six rebounds and four assists.
 
"Communicating, talking, working hard," Meyer said. "That's kind of how we won today and it's what we have to keep doing."