WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University women's basketball team held 10 of St. Catherine's 11 players to a combined 49 points in Wednesday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference matchup.
Problem was, that 11th player — Greta Schimnowski — was unstoppable from behind the 3-point line, pouring in seven 3-pointers and finishing with a game-high 22 points in leading the Wildcats to a 71-61 win over the Cardinals at the Saint Mary's Gym.
Schimnowski — who had made just 12 3-pointers through the Wildcats first 10 games — set the tone early, knocking down three 3-pointers in the game's opening quarter, as St. Catherine erased an early 6-3 Saint Mary's lead and grabbed a one-point, 19-18 lead through 10 minutes of play.
The Wildcats took advantage of a slow second-quarter start by the Cardinals, scoring 11 of the first 14 points to build their biggest lead of the half, 30-22, with 3:11 to play. Unfazed, the Cardinals got a layup basket by
Izzy Goettelman (Winona, Minn.) and back-to-back 3-pointers from
Graysin Hartjes (Kaukauna, Wis.) and
Emma Miller (Eau Claire, Wis.) to knot the game at 30-03 with 1:38 remaining.
Schimnowski nailed her sixth 3-pointer of the half and Mackenzie Kurczek added a free throw to close out the half and give SCU a 34-30 cushion at the break.
The Wildcats — and Schimnowski — picked up where they left off to open the third quarter, as Schimnowski drained her seventh 3-pointer four minutes in to give SCU its biggest lead of the game, 45-34. Once again, the large deficit did nothing to unravel the Cardinals, who ended the quarter on a 16-4 run to take a one-point, 50-49 lead into the game's final 10 minutes.
Miller kicked off the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer for the Cardinals to push their lead to four, 53-49. From there, however, it was all St. Catherine, as the Wildcats took the lead for good on a pair of Sam Orth free throws that jump-started a 7-0 St. Catherine run that gave SCU a 60-54 lead.
Saint Mary's would cut the deficit to four twice — 60-56 on a
Jada Biermeier (Eau Claire, Wis.) layup and 62-58 on a
Brooklyn Paulson (Holmen, Wis.) jumper — but that would be as close as the Cardinals would get, as SCU closed things out by scoring nine of the game's final 12 points.
Paulson recorded her second straight double-double to pace the Cardinals, scoring 14 points and adding 11 rebounds, while Biermeier chipped in 12 points. As a team, the Cardinals shot 35.7 percent from the field (20-for-54) with seven 3-pointers and 14 of 19 effort from the free throw line.
After three straight home games, Saint Mary's (3-7 MIAC, 4-9 overall) hits the road on Saturday, traveling to Concordia's Memorial Auditorium for a 1 p.m. conference matchup against the Cobbers.
