Saint Mary's University of Minnesota Athletics

By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
OSHKOSH, Wis. — As if opening the season against cross-town rival and NCAA Division II power Winona State wasn't tough enough, the Saint Mary's University women's basketball team returned to the court on Monday — against one of the top NCAA Division III teams in the country.
 
Just two days after that showdown against the Warriors, the Cardinals were back on the court Monday, going toe-to-toe with UW-Oshkosh — ranked No. 8 in the WBCA preseason poll and No. 18 in the D3hoops.com Top 25, after reaching the NCAA Sweet 16 a year ago as part of a 26-4 campaign.
 
And despite an 18-point effort from Shayley Vesel (Austin, Minn.), the Cardinals could not keep pace with the high-powered Titans, as UW-Oshkosh dealt Saint Mary's a 68-54 nonconference setback.
 
The Cardinals came out firing, grabbing an early 9-7 lead, only to have UW-Oshkosh rattle off 10 unanswered points — including back-to-back 3-pointers from Brook Freitag and Karsyn Rueth — to grab a 19-12 advantage. Saint Mary's would answer, scoring five of the final seven points of the quarter to get within four, 21-17 after the game's opening 10 minutes.
 
A Brooklyn Paulson (Holmen, Wis.) 3-pointer whittled the Titans' lead to three, 23-20, but again UW-Oshkosh an offensive run up its sleeve, scoring four straight points to regain a seven-point, 27-20 edge. Michele Remer (Bismarck, N.D.) drilled a 3-pointer to make it a four-point game, 27-23 with 2:27 to go until halftime, but a quarter-ending 8-2 Titan burst gave the hosts a nine-point, 35-26 lead at the break.
 
UW-Oshkosh scored 14 of the first 19 points of the third quarter to push its lead to a game-high 18, 49-31, but the Cardinals cut into the deficit, getting four straight points from Vesel on a pair of free throws and a layup as part of an 8-2 quarter-ending run to pull Saint Mary's within 12, 51-39, heading to the game's final 10 minutes.
 
Jada Biermeier (Eau Claire, Wis.) kicked off the fourth quarter by knocking down a jumper to make it a 10-point game, 51-41, but that would be as close as the Cardinals would get, as the Titans' lead ballooned to as many as 17 in the final stanza before UW-Oshkosh settled for the 14-point, 68-54 victory.
 
Along with Vesel's 18-point effort, the Cardinals also got nine points from Paulson, six from Remer and five from Ewelina Schlomann (New Berlin, Wis.). Saint Mary's shot 34.0 percent from the field (18-for-53), but were just 5 of 14 from behind the 3-point line. The Cardinals also knocked down 13 of their 17 free throw attempts, and hauled in 31 rebounds — including 24 on the defensive end.
 
Leah Porath and Olivia Campbell scored 19 and 15 points, respectively, to lead the way for UW-Oshkosh, which shot 44.0 percent from the field (22-for-50 with eight 3-pointers, and added a 16-for-19 effort from the charity stripe.
 
The Cardinals (0-2 overall) are off until next Monday, when they return home to the Saint Mary's Gym for an exhibition game against Western Wisconsin Technical College. Game time is set for 7 p.m. The Titans (1-0 overall), meanwhile, return to action on Friday and Saturday, heading to Dubuque, Iowa, to take part in the Loras Invitational. UW-O will kick off the two-day tournament with a 2 p.m. matchup against Augustana (Ill.), with Saturday's opponent and game time to be determined.