By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
ST. JOSEPH, Minn. ­— The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota women's basketball team faced a daunting task in their season-opener Friday evening against Simpson.
 
After all, the Storm had already played one game — and put up 100 points in a 100-65 rout of Millikin one week ago.
 
The Cardinals limited the Storm to just 72 points in their showdown Friday — unfortunately, 72 points proved to be more than enough, as Simpson dealt the Cardinals a 72-62 setback during Day 1 of the Saint Benedict Quinlivan & Hughes Tip-Off Tournament.
 
Saint Mary's found themselves playing catch-up early, surrendering the game's first seven points, before Brooklyn Paulson (Holmen, Wis.) drained a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 7-3. Simpson tried to pull away, pushing its lead to 17-9, but Saint Mary's answered with six straight points to cut the gap to two, 17-15 after the first quarter.
 
Simpson started the second quarter in similar fashion to the first, outscoring Saint Mary's 11-8 to grab a 28-22 lead. The Cardinals continued to whittle away at the Simpson lead — but could never get over the hump — cutting the gap to four, 28-24, only to have the Storm use a half-ending 12-6 burst to take a 10-point, 40-30 lead into the locker room at the break.
 
The Cardinals made it a six-point game, 45-39 midway through the third quarter, but again the Storm had an answer, scoring six of the final seven points to take a 51-40 lead into the game's final 10 minutes.
 
Simpson came out firing in the fourth quarter, scoring seven unanswered points to push its lead to 18, 58-40 in the opening minutes. But the Cardinals weren't going down without a fight, trimming the deficit to eight, 68-60 on a Paulson 3-pointer, but that would be as close as they would get.
 
Paulson finished with a team-high 16 points in her collegiate debut as a Cardinal, going 6-for-10 from the field — including 4-for-8 from 3-point range. Clare Patterson (Marine, Minn.) chipped in nine points for Saint Mary's, with Jada Biermeier (Eau Claire, Wis.), Michele Remer (Grand Forks, N.D.), and Rachel Kedl (Lamberton, Minn.) each adding eight.
 
Jenna Taylor netted a game-high 18 points for Simpson, while Cameron Kincaid (14), Rachel Freiland (11), and Claire Johnson (11) all finished in double figures.
 
The Cardinals (0-1 oveerall) are back on the court at CSB's Claire Lynch Hall on Saturday, squaring off against Nebraska Wesleyan in a 2 p.m. nonconference game.