ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – The University of Minnesota Morris women's basketball team fell victim to the three-point shooting of the College of Saint Benedict on Friday night in a 70-54 loss to the Bennies. The Cougars (0-2) made only two three-pointers on the night – both in the second quarter – while Saint Benedict had nine in the first half and 11 for the contest.

Layups from Jay Kwateh and Lexus Redthunder gave Minnesota Morris a 4-0 lead in the first minute of the game and the Cougars held onto that advantage until a Carla Meyer triple tied things up at 8-8. Saint Benedict took the lead from there and a 7-0 run midway through the quarter helped stake the Bennies to a 23-16 lead after one.

Five straight points from Jadyn Sondrol early in the second quarter got the deficit down to five, 26-21. The Cougars were able to keep it in that range for awhile, pulling within five two more times in the quarter before back-to-back threes from Sophia Jones pushed the Saint Benedict lead to 43-32. The advantage for the Bennies at the break was 48-39.

Shots weren't falling quite as fast in the second half and Minnesota Morris had the deficit hover near 10 points most of the third quarter. A Megan Driste layup in the final seconds gave Saint Benedict a 60-48 edge heading into the last 10 minutes.

A prolonged drought from the Cougars sapped any real chance of a comeback. Nearly six minutes came off the clock before Shelby Mortenson scored in the fourth quarter, cutting it to 65-50. A Maddy Grove layup with 3:17 to play made it 67-54, but the Cougars were held scoreless the rest of the way.

Grove paced the Cougar offense with 11 points, while Grace Perry tacked on nine. Sondrol and Redthunder each had eight points on the night. Malory Anderson collected five steals in the contest.

Minnesota Morris will be back at Saint Benedict tomorrow afternoon, facing St. Olaf College in a neutral-site game starting at 1 p.m.