Sophomore guard Laura Hauge rises for a layup. The St. Thomas women’s basketball team lost 61-53 Saturday in Sioux Falls. (Evan Neubauer/The Crest) 
Graduate guard Jada Hood led the Tommies with 17 points. (Evan Neubauer/The Crest) 
Sinn led the Tommies to their first ever Summit League Tournament semifinals in their first year of full Division I status. (Evan Neubauer/The Crest) 
Senior guard Faith Feurbach ended her four-year career with nine points Saturday. (Evan Neubauer/The Crest) 
The Tommies gave a defensive battle and kept NDSU well below their average of 80.1 points per game.(EvanNeubauer/The Crest)
Ruth Sinn ended her 21-year career as the St. Thomas head coach by taking the women’s basketball program somewhere it had never been before, something she had done throughout the decades of her playing and coaching career.
She added an appearance in the Summit League semifinals to a mountain of firsts that she has accumulated through the decades, including the first female coach to hit the 400-win mark in program history and shepherding the team into the Division I era.
“I still love this game of basketball. It’s good. It still just excites me, and I’m still going to watch a lot of it,” Sinn said. “But the reason I love it is because it’s just watching people do greatly, and I can’t be prouder of my young women and how we fought, and how we competed and how we represented the university.”
Sinn also brought the Tommies to nine Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament championships, three Final Four appearances and three more in the Sweet Sixteen.
No. 1 North Dakota State ended No. 5 UST’s run 61-53 Saturday en route to the Summit League title game at the Denny Sanford Premier Center.
After the game, Sinn called herself a “senior” just like her players because this was also her final season.
“I will be honest. I am glad that this was my last team, because they care so much, and they bought into what you’re saying, and as a coach that’s all you want,” Sinn said.
She was joined by two fellow “seniors,” guards Jada Hood and Faith Feuerbach in the postgame press conference. The two players had completely different routes to St. Thomas, but together they anchored the team’s backcourt this season.
Hood capped off her college career with a 17-point performance. She ended the season averaging 8.9 points per game. She was also third in conference with 3.5 assists per game, earning her a spot on the All-Newcomer Team.
The St. Paul native was originally recruited by Sinn out of high school, but instead went to junior college where she was a standout at Kilgore College in Texas and NCAA Division II Christian Brothers University. When the time came to return home, she said she was more than ready.
“I wanted to be with a coach who appreciates being with her family and treats us like family,” Hood said. “She was like, ‘So when can we get you on a visit?’ And I said, ‘Yesterday.’ I wanted to be a Tommie and wearing purple is great.”
Feuerbach had been in purple for three years already, but as a role player. She was the most experienced returning player ahead of the season, averaging just 15.7 minutes per game. She doubled her time on the court and averaged 9.6 points per game in her final season.
All-Summit League First Team honoree, sophomore forward Alyssa Sand scored 15 points on Saturday.
Sand is a part of a young core that includes sophomore guard Mikayla Werner and first-year forward Autumn McCall.
“They are going to be a factor in the Summit League the next few years,” NDSU coach Jory Collins said.
Werner added eight points on six shots.
Sinn threw multiple defenders, including Sand and Werner, at Bison junior forward Avery Koenen on Saturday. The conference player of the year finished with 31 points and eight rebounds. She drew nine fouls and went 9-for-10 from the free-throw line.
“She’s a great player, she’s going to make great plays. We tried to send a couple at her, and she found a way around it,” Feuerbach said.
Koenen is averaging 26 points per game in the Summit League Championships despite playing on an injured ankle left over from the quarterfinals.
“I don’t think there was any hesitation in me playing or not. I knew that I would have to, you know, suck it up and show up for my team today,” Koenen said.
UST only scored 22 points in the first half but kept NDSU to just 24. The Bison stormed forward in the final two quarters, outscoring UST by ten.
“Offense was hard to come by, I think, for both teams for a little bit. Felt like we got into a little better groove in the second half of just being able to get more fluid in what we were doing,” Collins said.
NDSU also caused 22 St. Thomas turnovers, creating 25 points.
Although she will no longer be watching film at 2 a.m. as Hood pointed out in the press conference, Sinn promised to still be around the program, cheering them on from the stands.
“I told them, if I have to get after them because they’re not going hard, I will still go after them until they’re going hard,” Sinn said. “They’re going to do great things and I think, you know, they’re going to be reckoned with in the Summit League and I can’t wait to watch it.”
This report is brought to you by U.S. Bank.
Adam Mueller can be reached at muel7541@stthomas.edu.
