WINONA, Minn. — It was a tale of two halves of two halves for the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota women's basketball team Wednesday evening.
The Cardinals outscored St. Catherine by a combined 38-26 over the final 10 minutes of each half, as Saint Mary's pulled away to hand the Wildcats an 80-70 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference setback at the Saint Mary's Gym.
After six ties in the game's opening eight minutes—the last at 14-14—the Cardinals took control, building leads as big as nine on three separate occasions, only to have SCU respond, cutting Saint Mary's lead to five, 29-24, with 5:42 remaining until halftime.
But the Cardinals were just getting warmed up, using a 12-0 run to push their lead to 17, 41-26, before settling for an 11-point, 41-30, advantage at the break.
The Wildcats made things interesting right out of the gate in the second half, scoring the first six points of the game to cut the Cardinal lead to five, 41-36.
Micaela Meredith (Bloomington, Minn.) drained a 3-pointer—the first of three clutch 3s by the Cardinal junior in the second half—to kick-start a run that pushed Saint Mary's lead back to eight, 44-36, but SCU continued whittling away, finishing off a 11-3 run that once again made it a three-point game, 44-41.
And again Meredith silenced the visiting Wildcats with another bomb from outside to swing the momentum back to the Cardinals' side.
The Cardinals pushed their lead to eight, 59-51, only to have SCU make it a three-point game once again, 62-59 with 10 minutes remaining.
And just like in the first half, the game's final 10 minutes belonged to Saint Mary's, as the Cardinals outscored the Wildcats 18-11—including five free throws down the stretch to ice their fourth straight win.
The Cardinals boasted six players in double figures, led by
Molly O'Toole (Plymouth, Minn.) and Meredith, who finished with 19 and 16 points, respectively.
Octavia Brown (Broadview, Ill.) chipped in 12 points, while
Emma Schaefer (Falcon Heights, Minn.) added 11, and
Sara Schoenthaler (White Bear Lake, Minn.) and
Shelby Auseth (Wanamingo, Minn.) each finished with 10.
Saint Mary's shot 52 percent from the field (33-for-64), but were just 4 of 16 from the free throw line and 10-for-21 from the free throw line.
St. Catherine's trio of LaShay Holt, Mari Lee and Shauna Horsch accounted for 56 of the team's 70 points, as Holt netted a game-high 27 points—and added 11 rebounds—while Lee finished with 18 points and Horsch tallied 11.
The Cardinals (6-3 MIAC, 12-4 overall) are back in action on Saturday, traveling to Si Melby Hall in Minneapolis, Minn., for a 1 p.m. conference game against Augsburg.
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