North Miami-Dade News

St. Thomas University Women's Basketball (14-1, 5-0 SUN) had the most memorable first half to a season in program history. Starting with a 14-game win streak to open the year, breaking the program record, and giving Head Coach Candace Walker a new win streak as well. The win streak ended on Tuesday afternoon with a tough loss to no. 7 Indiana Wesleyan University (11-3) from the Fernandez Family Center Gym, 73-66.

Brooke Bogatz started off the scoring with a three-point basket to give STU the initial lead. Kasey Gagan than earned the defense rebound and drove it down court to give the Bobcats early momentum and a 5-0 advantage. As both teams battled it back and forth through the first ten, it was STU that held the lead and took the first quarter as they have so far in 14-of-15 games this season.

Connieya Bradford and Marta Franco hit back-to-back layups to keep it going to in the start of the second quarter. Gagan added five more points in under a minute span to make it double digits in the first half. Bogatz ended the first half with a mid-range jumper to close it out and send the game into the break with an eight-point lead.

For the third straight quarter St. Thomas earned the first basket, Bogatz got a steal and secured a fast break layup to give STU their largest lead at 10-points. Indiana Wesleyan worked their way back into it and tied it up at 39 all with 6:02 on the clock in the third. The Wildcats later flipped the scoreboard for the first time at 42-41 halfway through. Bria Brown quickly erased th deficit with two free throws from the media timeout. St. Thomas would push to take the lead back into the final frame at 54-52.

The fourth quarter would come down to the wire as the intensity increased and the win was just within fingertip reach for the Bobcats. Moye knocked down a three to start another quarter with a Bobcat basket. The Wildcats offense would come alive throughout and shoot their best in the fourth going 58-percent from the field. IWU regained the lead a little over two minutes and would hold it there for the remainder of the game. Crucial late turnovers would leave the Wildcats with the advantage.

Coaches' Corner Quote – Candace Walker, Head Coach
"I am extremely proud of the way that we competed today. Indiana Wesleyan is an elite team that is very well coached and extremely disciplined. Today showed that we can compete with the best in the country, this is of course not the result that we wanted, but we will learn from this and continue to grow as the season progresses. We. have had a great first half of the season, we will use these next couple of days to recharge and get ready for another run in the second half of the year."

St. Thomas will now head into the break and look forward to more tough competition hosting the STU Holiday Classic with Lindsey Wilson and no. 3 Campbellsville on December 29 and 30th to close out the 2022 slate from the Fernandez Family Center. 

Original source can be found here.