By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
WINONA, Minn. — When the Saint Mary's University women's basketball team squared off against Bethel in the teams' first meeting on Jan. 4, the Royals were riding a season-opening 10-game winning streak, and were ranked No. 25 in the country.
 
Since that meeting, BU has rattled off 10 more victories — and jumped to No. 5 in the latest D3hoops.com Top 25.
 
And the Cardinals took the court Saturday afternoon determined to do something no other team had been able to do thus far — hand the Royals their first loss of the season.
 
Which is exactly what they did.
 
Saint Mary's put four players in double figures — and sent a message early by scoring 15 of the game's first 16 points — as the Cardinals dealt the fifth-ranked Royals a 77-69 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference setback at the Saint Mary's Gym.
 
If the Cardinals were intimidated by the Royals lofty national ranking and perfect record, they certainly didn't show it, scoring the game's first six points — and 15 of the opening 16 — to take a 15-1 lead midway through the first quarter.
 
And the Cardinals would not relinquish the lead.
 
Bethel put together a mini, 7-4 run to end the first quarter, cutting the Cardinal to lead to nine, 24-15. Saint Mary's kept the lead in double figures for much of the second quarter — and led by 14, 37-23 — before BU closed the half with five unanswered points to make it a nine-point contest, 37-28, at the break.
 
Brooklyn Paulson (Holmen, Wis.) came out of the halftime intermission and knocked down a pair of field goals — the first a half-opening 3-pointer — as the Cardinal lead returned to 14, 42-28. Saint Mary's would push the advantage to 17, 51-34, with 6:00 to play in the quarter, but again the Royals came charging back — outscoring the Cardinals 18-8 in those final six minutes to once again make it a nine-point SMU lead, 59-52, heading to the game's final 10-minute quarter.
 
Bethel opened the quarter in much the same way they ended the third, whittling the lead to five, 62-57 on a pair of free throws by Kat Brown-Erdal. Back-to-back field goals by Shayley Vesel (Austin, Minn.), however, got the Cardinal lead back to nine, 66-57 — and Bethel would get no closer than four the rest of the way.
 
Vesel finished with a team-high 16 points on 6 of 13 shooting, while Paulson chipped in 15 points and Maggie Robertson (Orland Park, Ill.) delivered 14. Claire Patterson (Marine, Minn.) also finished in double figures for Saint Mary's, netting 12 points — including a perfect 5-for-5 from the free throw line.
 
As a team, the Cardinals shot 45.1 percent from the field (23-for-51), with nine 3-pointers and a 22-for-27 effort from the free throw line. Bethel, meanwhile, hit on 38.5 percent of its shots (25-for-65), finished 7-for-25 from behind the 3-point line, and went 12-for-20 from the charity stripe.
 
The up-tempo, full-court pressure did a number on both teams, with both the Cardinals and Royals committing 19 turnovers.
 
The Cardinals (3-13 MIAC, 3-18 overall) hit the road on Wednesday, traveling to Carleton's West Gym in Northfield, Minn., for a 7 p.m. conference tilt against the Knights. The Royals (15-1 MIAC, 20-1 overall), meanwhile, hit the road on Wednesday, heading across town to St. Thomas' Schoenecker Arena in St. Paul, Minn., for a 7 p.m. MIAC showdown with the Tommies.