By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
WISCONSIN DELLS, Wis. — The Saint Mary's University women's basketball team turned up the offensive heat Monday afternoon in its JustAGame Holiday Shootout showdown against UW-Stevens Point.
 
The Cardinals erupted for a season-high 79 points — and boasted a pair of players with 20 or more points in the same game for the first time this season — in their nonconference matchup against the Pointers.
 
Unfortunately, that effort fell just short, as UW-Stevens Point's Taylor Greenheck knocked down four free throws in the game's final 15 seconds — erasing a one-point Cardinal lead and pushing the Pointers to an 82-79 victory at JustAGame Fieldhouse.
 
UW-Stevens Point boasted the hot hand early, scoring 10 of the game's first 12 points, only to have the Cardinals close the game's first 10 minutes on an 8-0 run to whittle the Pointers' lead to one, 16-15.
 
Brooklyn Paulson (Holmen, Wis.) found her shooting touch in the second quarter, draining the first of her three, second-quarter 3-pointers to give Saint Mary's its first lead of the game, 18-16. The Cardinals would push their lead to as many as three on three separate occasions — including 28-25 on a Paulson 3-pointer with 6:37 remaining until halftime.
 
Over those final six-plus minutes, however, UW-Stevens Point's offense came to life, as the Pointers closed the half on a 20-6 run — including netting nine of the final 10 points to take a 45-34 lead into the break.
 
Saint Mary's could not cut into the Pointers' advantage in the third quarter, and headed into the game's final 10 minutes trailing by 12, 65-53.
 
But what a final 10 minutes it proved to be.
 
The Cardinals opened the quarter on an 11-2 run to trim the UW-Stevens Point lead to five, 69-64, with 6:29 remaining in regulation.
 
And the Cardinals were just getting warmed up
 
Trailing by three, 73-76 on a pair of Shayley Vesel (Austin, Minn.) free throws, the Cardinals launched a pair of 3-pointers — the first by Paulson to tie the game at 76-76 and the second by Vesel to give Saint Mary's a 79-78 lead with 15 seconds to play.
 
Enter Greenheck, who drained a pair of free throws to put the Pointers up by one, 80-79, and, after a Cardinal turnover, knocked down to more to seal the Pointer win.
 
Vesel finished with a game-high 25 points — just three shy of her career-best — while Paulson chipped in a career-high 23. Ewelina Schlomann (New Berlin, Wis.) chipped in 12 points for the Cardinals, who shot 40.6 percent from the field (28-for-69) — including 10 3-pointers, and were 13 of 22 from the free throw line.
 
The Pointers — who went 27-for-57 from the field (47.4 %) with seven 3-pointers and a 21-for-29 effort from the free throw line — put four players in double figures, led by Amber Baehman with 20 and Greenheck with 18.
 
The Cardinals (1-8 overall) return to Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play on Saturday, heading to Bethel's Robertson Center Gym in Arden Hills, Minn., for a 3 p.m. showdown against the Royals. The Pointers (5-6 overall) return home to Berg Gym in Stevens Point, Wis., on Saturday, entertaining UW-River Falls in a 3 p.m. Western Intercollegiate Athletic Conference contest.