WINONA, Minn. — After three straight road games, the Saint Mary's University women's basketball team kicked off the home portion of its schedule Monday — and the Cardinals gave those in attendance a home-opening thriller.
 
A thriller that needed more than 40 minutes to determine a winner.
 
Unfortunately for the home crowd, the end result did not go in their favor, as Hamline outscored the Cardinals 10-6 in the five-minute overtime session in dealing Saint Mary's a 75-71 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference setback Tuesday evening at the Saint Mary's Gym.
 
The Cardinals — who came into Tuesday's showdown riding high after back-to-back wins in their previous two games — including a 63-58 victory over Macalester in their conference-opener last Saturday — were in control most of the first quarter, only to have Hamline use some nifty 3-point shooting late to grab a 22-18 lead after the game's opening 10 minutes.
 
The game remained nip-and-tuck through the second stanza, with Hamline outscoring Saint Mary's 16-14 to push its lead to six, 38-32, heading into the halftime intermission.
 
Coming out of halftime, the Pipers would build their lead to 12, 46-34, only to have Saint Mary's rattled off eight unanswered points to make it a four-point game with 3:48 to play in the third quarter. And the Cardinals weren't finished, getting a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Brooklyn Paulson (Holmen, Wis.) to cut the deficit to one, 50-49, heading into the game's final 10 minutes.
 
A pair of free throws by Alyssa Coleman (Matteson, Ill.) to open the fourth quarter gave Saint Mary's its first lead, 51-50, since early in the first quarter.
 
The game would remain close throughout the fourth quarter, with Hamline holding a three-point 65-62 lead with less than 20 seconds remaining in regulation.
 
Enter Paulson — again.
 
The senior drained a game-tying 3-pointer with nine seconds to play to tie the game at 65-65, and Hamline could not get a last-second, game-winning jumper to fall — sending the game into overtime.
 
Paulson opened the extra session the way she ended regulation — with a 3-point bomb — but it was all Hamline after that, as the Pipers scored 10 of the final 13 points to nail down the win.
 
Paulson picked up her first double-double of the season to lead the Cardinals, scoring a season-high 24 points and adding 12 rebounds, while Izzy Goettelman (Winona, Minn.) chipped in a career-best 13 points.
 
The Cardinals (1-1 MIAC, 2-2 overall) are now off until Sunday, when they entertain Luther in a 2 p.m. nonconference game at the Saint Mary's Gym.