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WINONA, Minn. — If Saturday night's exhibition opener was a pop quiz, the Saint Mary's University women's basketball team was stumped by one big question.

The Cardinals had no answer for Winona State's Katie Wolff, a sophomore guard who poured in 23 points to help WSU earn an 82-50 exhibition win over the Cardinals at McCown Gymnasium.

“The girl can shoot,” said SMU coach Mandy Pearson. “I think our players made a good adjustment on Wolff, but after her big first half, we started to sag off of the other WSU players a little bit too much.”

The Warriors jumped out to a 16-5 lead to start the first half, but SMU used an 11-2 run to close the gap to one, 18-17. A Jess Miller (Carver, Minn.) 3-pointer then gave the Cardinals their first — and, unfortunately, only — lead of the game 20-18.

Wolff, who finished the first half with 15 points on 6 of 10 shooting from the field, closed out the first half with a last-second, 3-pointer to put an exclamation point on the Warriors' 32-25 halftime advantage.

The Warriors' seven-point halftime lead continued to grow over the game's final 20 minutes, spearheaded by 12 second-half points from center Michelle McDonald.

“They definitely looked into the post more in the second half,” said Pearson. “As our shots weren't dropping, and then out intensity dropped.”

Miller and Jessica Thone (Woodbury, Minn.) finished with 12 and 11 points, respectively, to lead SMU. Cherie Kulig (Independence, Wis.) led the Cardinals with four rebounds.

The Cardinals begin regular-season play on Tuesday, hosting UW-Platteville in a 7 p.m. nonconference contest at the SMU Gym.