First-year guard Mikayla Werner banks in a layup past Crown defenders. Werner scored 14 points and grabbed eight rebounds in the Tommies’ 99-33 win over Crown College Thursday at Schoenecker Arena. (Eli Andersen/The Crest) 
Junior guard Amber Scalia hits senior center Jo Langbehn with a no-look pass. (Eli Andersen/The Crest) 
Senior forward Jordyn Lamker and junior guard Kammie Ludwig play tight defense. (Eli Andersen/The Crest) 
Werner elevates over the defender for the layup. (Eli Andersen/The Crest)
St. Thomas women’s basketball coach Ruth Sinn skimmed the box score after the team’s 99-33 win over Crown College Thursday night at Schoenecker Arena.
A few names and statlines jumped out to Sinn, now in her 20th season with the Tommies. Senior guard Jade Hill had nine points, 5 assists and the team was plus-43 with her on the floor. Senior center Jo Langbehn led all scorers with 15 points and was plus-37.
“I’m really proud of Jade. Yes she had plus-43, but five assists … she’s really taken some big steps,” Sinn said.
While objectively impressive statlines against the Division III Polars, casual watchers of Tommie basketball wouldn’t be surprised to see those two players leading the team. Hill was a preseason All-Summit League second-team selection and Langbehn led the conference in field goal percentage last season.
One other name stood out to Sinn, first-year guard Mikayla Werner, and her 14 points and 8 rebounds. That’s a name that’s new to Tommie fans.
“Mikayla Werner stepped up for us in all aspects. Defensively on the boards, offensively on the boards. Defensively she did a really great job,” Sinn said.
Werner played two minutes in St. Thomas’ opening win against UW-Milwaukee on Monday, but Thursday acted as her introduction to those seated at Schoenecker Arena.
“It felt really great just to be out there, be with my teammates. It was so much fun being able to translate stuff that I’ve learned in practice from them and being able to use it in a game,” Werner said.
Junior guard Amber Scalia also reached double-digit scoring with 14 points.
The Tommies’ large lead over the Polars gave Sinn the opportunity to go deep into her bench and give newcomers significant minutes alongside the team’s upperclassmen cast. First-year forward Alyssa Sand, who also made her debut Monday, chipped in 14 points and seven rebounds.
Sinn said that Sand’s impact, especially on the defensive side, might not be apparent if one didn’t watch the game.
“She had a couple monster blocks, did you see that? You wouldn’t see that in the stats because they weren’t just regular blocks. They were a little bit more,” Sinn said.
On Monday, Sinn pushed the importance of Sand and Langbehn getting to share time on the court. Langbehn said that Sand’s development could make the team “unstoppable.”
“She can stretch, she can post, she can do all of it. So we’re just getting her prepared to be in this spot, just because we need a dominant post player,” Sinn said.
The Tommies fought through offensive struggles early, and were down 6-4 just over four minutes into the game.
“It was too fast. If you watch, I think our players were like, ‘we’ve got to go, we’ve got to go,’ and they were playing frenetic,” Sinn said, “We never got it to multiple sides, we never rotated the ball. It was like, ‘Go, go, go,’ taking the first available shot.”
Werner said she saw that same issue in her play and said she wants to address it before the next game.
“I feel like sometimes I get rushed, so just working on being able to make the right decisions,” Werner said.
The Tommies put 13 players out on the floor, but Sinn expects a core rotation of 10. Werner said it’s been pretty easy to find her role on the court.
“Our freshman class is such a tight-knit group, and then just our team as a whole. I feel like this whole past summer, we really worked on our team bonding,” Werner said.
The Tommies now have a four-game road streak and won’t play at Schoenecker Arena until Nov. 25. They will have to play Northern Illinois, Iowa State, Wichita State and Oakland University in Michigan.
“This next stretch is just really going to have to show our mental fortitude, but that’s what builds character,” Sinn said.
The game against Northern Illinois is slated for 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 10 at the Convocation Center in Dekalb, Illinois.
“(Crown College) has a lot of three shooters and they had ball screens. That’s what Northern Illinois will run, so it’s really kind of helping us,” Sinn said.
Adam Mueller can be reached at muel7541@stthomas.edu.