Women's Basketball 11/30/04 -- St. Olaf 65, Augsburg 58 

BOXSCORE

NORTHFIELD, Minn. (11/30/04) -- The St. Olaf College women's basketball team fought off a second-half charge from Augsburg college, coming out on top in a 65-58 victory on Tuesday night at Skoglund Center, in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener for both teams. The victory marked St. Olaf's first victory of the season bringing their record to 1-1, Augsburg slides to 0-2.

Trailing 33-21 at halftime, the Auggies opened the second half with a 16-2 run and eventually went up by five points. Alissa Blood (So., Mounds View, Minn./Irondale HS) connected on three 3-pointers in a 1:20 span during the run, while Katie Kelsey (Sr., Burnsville, Minn.) had five points in the run.

Blood ended up with 16 points, hitting 4-of-7 from beyond the three-point arc, while Kelsey had 14 points. Katherine Gavin (So., Worthington, Minn.) had seven points for the Auggies.

But after the Auggie run, St. Olaf held its ground and later went up by four on a key three-pointer from Holly Grimsrud (So., Zumbrota, Minn./ Zumbrota-Mazeppa HS) with 4:30 remaining for the win in its first home-game of the season.

The Oles rallied behind Christina Sampson's (So., North Branch, Minn.) double-double and some clutch free throws from Grimsrud down the stretch to pull out the victory. Sampson finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Molly Simon (Sr., Hudson, Wis.) had a big game as well, with 13 points, four assists and five rebounds.

The key stat in the game was St. Olaf's 78.3-percent (18-of-23) performance from the free-throw line, compared with Augsburg's 55.6 percent (10-of-18). St. Olaf also outrebounded Augsburg by a 49-36 margin.

Both teams return to MIAC action on Saturday (12/4) at 1 p.m., with Augsburg hosting St. Mary's and St. Olaf playing at St. Benedict.