WINONA, Minn. — After staring at double-digit deficits after managing just seven, 10, and nine first-quarter points in their last three games, the Saint Mary's University women's basketball team found its rhythm much earlier Saturday afternoon against Bethel.
 
In fact, the Cardinals scored 12 points in the first quarter and 15 more in the second in battling the visiting Royals to a draw, 27-27, at the half.
 
A good start in the second, however, wasn't in the cards for Saint Mary's, as Bethel outscored the Cardinals 21-10 in the third quarter and never looked back in dealing SMU a 65-51 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference setback at the Saint Mary's Gym.
 
Saint Mary's made it look as easy as 1-2-3 in the first half — getting 11 points from Brooklyn Paulson (Holmen, Wis.), and eight from both Izzy Goettelman (Winona, Minn.) and Ashley Streveler (Colby, Wis.), as the trio scored all 27 of SMU's first-half points.
 
The Royals opened a quick 4-0 lead on the Cardinals, but Saint Mary's answered, scoring 12 of the next 16 points — including back-to-back 3-pointers by Goettelman to grab its biggest lead of the quarter, 12-8. BU's Kat Brown-Erdal knocked down a late jumper to trim the Cardinals' lead to 12-10 after 10 minutes.
 
Bethel clawed its way back into the lead, 15-14 on a Courtney Nuest bucket with 6:30 to play in the half, but once again the Cardinals had an answer, as Streveler (Colby, Wis.) drained eight unanswered points — including a pair of 3-pointers — to give SMU a 20-15 advantage. Saint Mary's would match that five-point lead, 22-17, on a pair of Streveler free throws, before the Royals closed the half on a 10-5 run to knot the game at 27-27 at the break.
 
The Royals scored the first six points of the second half to take a 33-27 lead, before Paulson got SMU going with a jumper to make it 35-29 with just under eight minutes to play. Paulson would knock down another bucket a minute later and Katelyn Cruze (Litchfield, Minn.) nailed a field goal — SMU's first points not scored by Paulson, Goettelman or Streveler — to get SMU within two, 35-33, only to have the Royals answer with an 11-2 burst to push their lead to 11, 46-35.
 
And the Cardinals would get no closer than nine the rest of the way in falling to 2-4 in conference play.
 
Paulson finished with a team-high 16 points, going 7-for-13 with one 3-pointer and a free throw, while Goettelman chipped in 12 points — one shy of her career high — and Streveler added 10. Saint Mary's — which shot 40.0 percent from the field (20-for-50) with five 3-pointers — proved to be its own worst enemy, turning the ball over 28 times, including 18 in the first half.
 
The Cardinals (2-4 MIAC, 3-6 overall) are now off until Jan. 5, 2022, when they travel to Gustavus' Gus Young Court in St. Peter, Minn., for a 7 p.m. conference showdown against the Gusties.