UST women reach first-ever Summit League semifinal, beat ORU 81-54

Sophomore guard Mikayla Werner powered No. 5 St. Thomas women’s basketball to an 81-54 win over No. 4 Oral Roberts Friday with her 21 points at the Denny Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

This is the Tommies’ first win in the Summit League Championship in history. The victory also extended coach Ruth Sinn’s career by at least one more game after she announced her retirement earlier this season.

“It’s super exciting,” Werner said in the postgame press conference.

“But we’re not satisfied,” Sinn added.

UST will play No. 1 North Dakota State Saturday at noon. NDSU’s junior forward Avery Koenen was recognized as the conference player of the year Tuesday. She left their quarterfinal game with an injury but returned and scored 23 points in 21 minutes.

“It’s going to be a big task, but I think we’re excited about having the opportunity to be there, and we’re just going to come in and play our game,” Sinn said.

On top of her scoring and efficient 9-10 shooting, Werner grabbed nine rebounds. She averaged 11.4 points and 4.6 rebounds in UST’s 5-2 stretch ahead of the tournament.

“I think her game has definitely stepped up and, like, we needed this big time. We needed someone that could bring a little more energy,” sophomore forward Alyssa Sand said.

Golden Eagles senior guard Jalei Oglesby dropped 18 points on the Tommies, but the rest of ORU was kept relatively quiet. Guards junior Gentry Baldwin and first-year Preslee Hartsock added ten points each.

Ahead of Friday’s matchup, only the Tommies’ Sand and senior guard Faith Feuerbach had seen action in the conference tournament. 

Sand dropped 17 points and Feuerbach contributed 12 points, five rebounds and five assists.

Sinn said that Feuerbach is the team’s “unsung hero” and that she has “stepped up.”

“If you watch, she is always guarding their best defensive assignment, the top defensive assignment. If you look offensively, she got us going on threes,” Sinn said.

In their previous matchup on Feb. 28, the Tommies lost to the Golden Eagles 67-52.

“I think our defense was just amazing today and I give credit to every single person on our team because everyone did their job and everyone stepped up, which we needed,” Sand said.

Sand and first-year forward Autumn McCall recorded five and three blocks, respectively.

Oral Roberts threw multiple full-court defenses at St. Thomas and showed flashes of being able to reign them in. UST turned the ball over 18 times.

“Our goal was to not get it to the half court. If we got it to the half court and how patient they are in the shell, we knew that it could be a fight,” ORU coach Cophie Anderson said.

Anderson cited the Tommies’ height advantage as the reason to avoid playing half-court defense. It also allowed UST to grab 43 rebounds to Oral Roberts’ 28.

When they were able to break the press, the Tommies used their size to their advantage. The team scored 46 points in the paint.

“I promise you, we have been working on the press from the first time we played them, every single day,” Sinn said. “It never looked like it. Tonight it did.”

St. Thomas jumped out to a quick lead, ending the first quarter ahead 18-8. The Golden Eagles scored one basket in the final 6:41 of the period.

“We dug ourselves a hole but all I could say was, ‘We just got to keep fighting,’ and I think we did that. I know the score doesn’t necessarily show it, but we never gave up,” Oglesby said.

UST scored 44 points in the first half, their most against a Division I opponent this season. After being down 6-4 early in the first quarter, they jumped ahead with a 14-0 run that lasted until a Golden Eagle basket in the final seconds.

McCall and graduate guard Jada Hood rounded out the double-digit scorers for the Tommies with 11 and ten points each.

This report is brought to you by U.S. Bank.

Adam Mueller can be reached at muel7541@stthomas.edu.