By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
WINONA, Minn. — It's a good thing for the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota women's basketball team that they were not awarding style points for their performance at the start and the end of Saturday's matchup with Macalester.
 
Their middle, on the other hand, was a perfect 10.
 
The Cardinals, who trailed by 10 early in the first quarter, scored nearly as many points in the second quarter (27) as the Scots had in the first half (28) and never relinquished the lead, holding off a late Macalester run to post a 65-56 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory at the Saint Mary's Gym.
 
The Cardinals found themselves staring at a 10-point deficit, 16-6 with less than three minutes remaining in the opening quarter, but, thanks in part to Brooklyn Paulson's (Holmen, Wis.) buzzer-beating 3-pointer, only trailed by one, 16-15 after 10 minutes of play.
 
Saint Mary's turned up the heat in the second quarter, using a half-ending 19-5 run — again capped by a Paulson 3-pointer with one second remaining — to take a commanding 42-28 lead into the locker room at the break.
 
The Cardinals had it on cruise control in the third quarter, building its lead to as many as 20, before settling for an 18-point, 58-40 lead heading into the game's final 10 minutes.
 
Ewelina Schlomann (New Berlin, Wis.) knocked down a jumper to open the four quarter — and give Saint Mary's what appeared to be a commanding 60-40 advantage. The Scots, however, decided to make things interesting, using a 12-2 run to make it a 10-point, 62-52 game late in the quarter.
 
Macalester's rally ran out of time, as Saint Mary's held off the hard-charging Scots en route to their second straight win.
 
Brandi Blattner (Eyota, Minn.) led the way for Saint Mary's, scoring a season-high 22 points, while adding 12 rebounds for her fourth double-double of the season — and 34^th of her collegiate career. Claire Patterson (Marine, Minn.) chipped in 11 points for Saint Mary's, which shot 41.1 percent from the field (23-for-56) and were a near-perfect 15 of 17 from the free throw line.
 
Katherine Podoll and Celine Sabbagh each scored 10 points in the losing effort for Macalester (1-7 MIAC, 3-12 overall).
 
The Cardinals (5-3 MIAC, 10-6 overall) hit the road on Wednesday, traveling to Concordia's Memorial Auditorium for a 5 p.m. conference showdown against the Cobbers.