CHICAGO, Ill. — The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota women's basketball team found itself in a rather unfamiliar position Tuesday afternoon in its nonconference game against North Park.
For the first time this season, the nationally ranked Cardinals were staring at a halftime deficit after the game's opening 20 minutes, as the Vikings took an 11-point, 34-23 advantage into the locker room at the break.
The Cardinals turned up the offensive heat over the game's final 20 minutes, outscoring the Vikings 39-30. Unfortunately, Saint Mary's could not completely erase that 11-point halftime deficit, falling two points short in dropping a 64-62 decision to North Park.
The Vikings scored the game's first basket and never relinquished the lead over the game's opening 20 minutes. North Park used an early 12-3 run to build a 16-7 advantage midway through the half, and held its biggest lead of the half, 31-16, with two minutes remaining.
Seven straight points by the Cardinals'
Molly O'Toole (Plymouth, Minn.) cut the deficit to eight, 31-23, before the Vikings' Liz Rehberger's 3-pointer beat the halftime buzzer to push North Park's cushion back to 11, 34-23, at the break.
The Cardinals began whittling away at the Vikings' lead, getting back-to-back 3-pointers from O'Toole to make it a two-point game, 47-45, with 6:36 remaining in regulation.
North Park, however, responded with a two-minute, 10-0 run to push its lead back to 12, 57-45. Saint Mary's responded with four 3-pointers over the game's final 4:11, but their final trey—
Micaela Meredith's (Bloomington, Minn.) fourth of the half—came in the waning seconds and left the Cardinals two points short.
O'Toole finished with a team- and game-high 18 points—including 11 in the second half—while Meredith, who went 5-for-6 from behind the 3-point line, chipped in a career-high 15 points.
As a team, the Cardinals shot 39 percent from the field (23-for-59), including a 12-for-23 effort from 3-point range. Nine of the Cardinals' 12 3-pointers came in the second half, when Saint Mary's was 9-for-14 from behind the arc.
Torres netted 16 points and Rehberger finished with 15 for North Park (8-3 overall), which finished 25-for-56 (44 percent) from the field.
The Cardinals (8-2 overall) return to Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play on Saturday, traveling to Moorhead, Minn., for a 1 p.m. showdown with Concordia.
