By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota women's basketball team played 23 games before the Cardinals finally squared off against St. Thomas for the first time this season.
 
Two games and just eight days later, the Cardinals and Tommies met again—this time with the stakes a little higher.
 
Make that much higher.
 
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, Meeting No. 2 had the same ending as Meeting No. 1, as top-seeded St. Thomas took advantage of Saint Mary's frigid shooting in the opening quarter in dealing SMU a season-ending 65-44 setback Thursday at Schoenecker Arena.
 
With the win, the Tommies—who beat the Cardinals 68-62 in their first meeting on the season on Feb. 14 at the Saint Mary's Gym—advance to Saturday's MIAC Playoff title game, where they will host third-seeded Gustavus, a 61-53 winner over second-seeded Saint Benedict on Thursday.
 
Both teams' offenses sputtered to open the playoff semifinal, as St. Thomas missed its first six field goals, while the Cardinals went 0-for-8 with a pair of turnovers to open the game.
 
St. Thomas would find its touch, scoring the game's first 10 points en route to a 14-5 lead after the first quarter. Alexa Huisman (Adrian, Minn.) scored all five first quarter points for the Cardinals, who went 2-for-12 field the field in the game's opening 10 minutes.
 
And the Cardinals would never recover.
 
Saint Mary's cut the Tommies lead to six on two separate occasions—the second at 20-14 on a basket by Shayley Vesel (Austin, Minn.). The Tommies, however, answered by closing the half on a 14-3 run to take a 34-17 lead into the locker room at the break.
 
St. Thomas' Elsa Anderson scored UST's first five points to open the third quarter, giving the Tommies a 39-19 lead with 5:40 to play. St. Thomas would knock down three 3-pointers in the final minutes of the quarter to thwart any Cardinal comeback hopes, and give the Tommies a commanding 52-33 lead heading into the game's final 10 minutes.
 
And it was more of the same for the Cardinals in that final 10-minute quarter, as St. Thomas continued to pull away, building its biggest lead of the game, 65-40, on a Lauren Fischer 3-pointer with 2:48 remaining.
 
Huisman—playing in her final collegiate game—scored a team-best 12 points, sharing that distinction with Vesel, while Brandi Blattner (Eyota, Minn.) fell one rebound short of her 13^th double-double of the season, finishing with 11 points and nine boards.
 
The Cardinals struggled from the field all night, shooting 28.6 percent (16-for-56)—including just 4 of 21 from behind the 3-point line—while going a perfect 8-for-8 from the free throw line.
 
Anderson and Lucia Renikoff each posted double-doubles to pace the Tommies, with Anderson scoring a team-best 15 points and adding 10 rebounds, while Renikoff tallied 13 points and 10 boards. Kaia Porter also scored in double figures for the Tommies—who have now won 53 straight against conference opponents—chipping in 11 points.
 
The Cardinals, who came into post-season play as the No. 5 seed and knocked off fourth-seeded Bethel 58-54 in the playoff opener on Tuesday, closed out the season with a 16-11 overall record, including a 10-8 mark in conference play.