WINONA, Minn. - The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota women's basketball team headed into Saturday's showdown against nationally ranked St. Thomas boasting a perfect 7-0 conference record-and a two-game lead over the Tommies and Gustavus in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference standings.

A win over St. Thomas would give the Cardinals a three-game cushion over the defending regular-season conference champs.

Unfortunately, the Tommies had other ideas.

St. Thomas knocked down eight 3-pointers in the first half-including six in the first quarter-and held off a furious Cardinal fourth-quarter comeback in handing Saint Mary's its first conference loss of the season, 76-67, at the Saint Mary's Gym.

The Tommies were virtually unstoppable at the outset, knocking down three straight 3-pointers to grab a quick 9-2 advantage.

And St. Thomas was just heating up.

The Tommies finished the opening quarter with 27 points-including six threes-in grabbing a 10-point, 27-17 lead.

And, unfortunately for the Cardinals, it was more of the same in the second quarter, as UST outscored Saint Mary's 12-4 to open the quarter-grabbing its biggest lead of the half, 39-21-and took a 46-29 lead into the locker room at the break.

St. Thomas maintained a double-digit lead through the third quarter, but the Cardinals came to life over the game's final 10 minutes, cutting the Tommie lead to six, 68-62, with 4:44 remaining in regulation.

St. Thomas answered with a 3-pointer by Lucia Renikoff to push the lead back to nine, 71-62, and led by seven, 74-67 with less than a minute on the clock. UST missed a pair of free throws that would have pushed the lead back to nine, only to grab the offensive rebound to seal the win.

Micaela Meredith (Bloomington, Minn.) scored a career-high 24 points-including a perfect 11-for-11 from the free throw line-while Sam Jones (White Bear Lake, Minn.) added 15 points and Bridget Pethke (New London, Wis.) chipped in 11 points and six assists. Brandi Blattner (Eyota, Minn.) hauled in a game-high 12 rebounds and missed her fifth straight double-double by one point, finishing with nine points.

The Cardinals shot 34 percent from the field (20-for-58)-but were just 3 of 18 from behind the 3-point line. Saint Mary's also knocked down 24 of 33 free throws and finished with 35 rebounds.

Katie Stone led three UST players in double figures with 18, with Renikoff and Lauren Fischer chipping in 16 and 13, respectively. Fueled by their 10-for-20 showing from behind the 3-point line, the Tommies shot 44 percent from the field (24-for-54) and were 18 of 26 from the free throw line.

The Cardinals (7-1 MIAC, 13-2 overall) remain one game in front of St. Thomas in the MIAC standings heading into Wednesday's home game against Hamline. The Saint Mary's-HU game is set for 7 p.m. at the Saint Mary's Gym.