Gusties emerge victorious
In last night's anticipated Top 15 battle, No. 11 Gustavus Adolphus improved to 3-0 with a 62-53 road win at No. 13 UW-Stout
It isn’t uncommon, especially at this point in the year, to watch a game and come away unsure of exactly how to view the result. What to take away. How much value to place on one game in mid-November. More often than not, you don’t come away with any concrete conclusions, but rather make your notes on both teams and have no choice but to tune into the next game to get a feel for whether what you initially thought is indeed true or just the result of a variable present in that particularly contest.
That was my feeling from the biggest game on last night’s slate, a clash between MIAC and WIAC, between #11 and #13, between Gustavus Adolphus and UW-Stout. It lived up the hype in terms of its back-and-forth, competitive nature, eventually playing out in favor of Gustavus, who won 62-53. Somewhere around 850 people were inside Johnson Fieldhouse for the Top 15 duel, a game that I would venture to guess was circled on both teams’ schedules from the beginning.
For the Gusties to go into that environment, outscore Stout 23-14 over the final 10 minutes, and get their third win of the season is something that deserves credit. This win will stand out on their resume moving forwards, and in all likelihood, will be the most significant non-league victory Gustavus has this season. They’re off to a 3-0 start for the third-straight year, a testament to the way head coach Laurie Kelly preps her teams in the preseason, and the level of consistency we’ve come to expect from the Gusties on a yearly basis.
At the same time, you can’t help, when looking at it objectively, wondering what kind of impact Raegan Sorensen and Amanda Giesen would’ve had on that game. Stout was without its Preseason All-American—Sorensen—and its newest member of the 1,000-point club—Giesen—in its highest-profile non-conference game of 2024-25. Both were out due to injuries suffered in the 71-53 win over St. Scholastica. Without those two on the floor, it’s hard to get a complete assessment of both teams. Being down one starter is difficult, but two? I give just as much credit to Stout, even in a loss, considering the way the Blue Devils performed despite being significantly shorthanded when you look at what Sorensen and Giesen bring to the rotation on both ends of the floor. Yes, they probably turned it over too much and shot just 7-of-15 at the FT line. But they also led the nation’s 11th-ranked team late in the third quarter, even with a limited bench and three starters playing at least 34 minutes.
To go a little deeper into the takeaways, Gustavus’ active defense stood out, especially early on when the offense was sputtering. They were quick to close out on the perimeter, and for the most part, denied Stout quality opportunities to drive to the lane. That contributed to Stout’s 19 turnovers, and also created several scoring chances in transition off deflections. Closing the game the way they did, extending the lead from two to eight in a five-minute stretch between the 8-minute mark and the 3-minute mark was also a pivotal point in the game turning in Gustavus’ favor.
For Stout, I think you immediately look at that third quarter. Even with some of the offensive struggles the Blue Devils had, especially in a five-point second quarter, they seemed to flip that in the third. There was a key offensive rebound by Sam Schaeffer that led to Maraya Wiltrout’s layup, cutting the Gustavus lead to one. There were the 3s by Lexi Wagner and Anna Mutch to put Stout up five. They came out of the half playing with a different kind of fire, and the 21-point 3rd—the one quarter in which Stout outscored Gustavus—kept the Blue Devils in it.
Overall, it was an excellent basketball game, which is what you want at this point in the year. The passion was there, the competitiveness was there, and both teams being ranked in the Top 15 only heightened the spotlight placed on the matchup. From a technical standpoint, there are improvements to be made on both sides, and I am interested to see how that process happens for both programs as non-conference play continues. We’ll see Stout at home against another very good MIAC program, Concordia (MN), next Saturday, and Gustavus gets an underrated Colorado College squad on Nov. 25. Both of those games will be quality tests and valuable data points as we get further into the season.
» Top individual performers: Gustavus Adolphus — Rachel Kawiecki (14 pts, 8 reb), Izzy Quick (10 pts, 10 reb), Emma Kniefel (7 pts, 5 ast), UW-Stout — Anna Mutch (22 pts), Lexi Wagner (17 pts, 8 reb), Sam Schaeffer (5 reb, 4 ast)
On the Rise
(Teams throughout Division III making strides with their recent results)
Keep an eye on Hanover. The Panthers beat a quality Asbury team, 77-73, last night, improving to 2-1 overall, with their lone loss coming to SLIAC favorite Webster. Grace Bezold had 31 points for Hanover to go along with 11 rebounds, and Katherine Benter shot 8-of-10 from the field with 20 points. As a team, Hanover shot 49.2% from the field and jumped up 17 spots in Massey Ratings with the win.
St. Thomas (TX) is another program that finds itself on more of an upward trajectory, having started 2-0 for the first time since 2018-19. Whether the Celts keep that success going deeper into the season remains to be seen, but their wins over LeTourneau (83-59) and Howard Payne (85-73) are a good start. Both results were improvements from last year’s performance against each of those two teams as St. Thomas is now up to #176 (a jump of over 80 spots) in Massey.
Today’s Games to Watch (all times ET)
#10 Illinois Wesleyan at Calvin, 5:00 p.m. — The Titans open their regular season after a pair of strong showings in D1 exhibitions. Calvin struggled last weekend against UW-Stout and St. Norbert, but looked good in Tuesday’s home opener against Wilmington. We’ll see if the Knights carry some of that success into this matchup.
MIT (1-1) at Bridgewater State (1-1), 7:30 p.m. — MIT struggled against NYU (but then again, who doesn’t?) but got its first win over Swarthmore, 56-48. Having had almost a week to make adjustments since that game, I look forward to seeing the Engineers on the road against Bridgewater State, who comes off a 79-74 OT win over Babson.
#14 Smith (2-0) at Redlands (2-0), 8 p.m. — Redlands has a chance to go back-to-back weekends with Top 25 wins, as the Bulldogs knocked off #17 Transylvania last Saturday. Smith enters this matchup after dominating in wins over Ramapo and Arcadia and I believe this will be a true test of Smith’s Top 15 preseason ranking.
#18 WashU (0-0) at Edgewood (1-0), 8 p.m. — We see WashU for the first time this season against a tough Edgewood squad who has the advantage of playing at home in this one. It will also be Lisa Stone’s debut as WashU’s head coach.
Ripon (2-0) at Wisconsin Lutheran (0-1), 8:15 p.m. — Ripon, the preseason favorite in the MWC, goes up against WLC, the preseason favorite in the NACC. I like what we saw from Ripon on the West Coast last weekend, beating Puget Sound and Pacific Lutheran by sizable margins. WLC might be 0-1, but that loss is to #23 Trine, and aside from the first quarter, the Warriors were in contention for the majority of that contest.