WINONA, Minn. — St. Scholastica made its first appearance in the Saint Mary's Gym as a member of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference on Saturday — and did so riding the high of a 61-55 win over St. Catherine on Wednesday, a victory that snapped the Saints' 27-game losing streak.
And the Saint Mary's University women's basketball team took the court determined to make sure there wouldn't be a second-straight CSS victory.
Mission accomplished — but it wasn't easy.
The Cardinals got a career-high 22 points from
Izzy Goettelman (Winona, Minn.) and a double-double by
Jada Biermeier (Eau Claire, Wis.) — and scored 12 of the game's final 20 points en route to a 72-68 victory at the Saint Mary's Gym.
The Cardinals could do no wrong in the game's opening six minutes, grabbing a commanding 18-2 lead.
After
Izzy Goettelman (Winona, Minn.) knocked down a pair of free throws and CSS's Liz Frase answered with a mid-range jumper, Saint Mary's rattled off 16 unanswered points — including a field goal, three, 3-pointers, a three-point play and a free throw — to grab what appeared to be commanding 16-point advantage, 18-2.
But the Saints would not go away — not by a long shot.
St. Scholastica answered Saint Mary's 16-0 burst by scoring nine in a row and 11 of the final 13 points of the quarter to whittle the SMU lead to seven, 20-13.
Saint Mary's was back in control two minutes into quarter No. 2, scoring the first seven points to reclaim a 12-point, 27-15 cushion — only to have the pesky Saints score 10 straight and 15 of the next 17, capped by Miranda Broberg's second consecutive 3-pointer to give CSS its first lead of the game, 30-29 with 2:15 to play until halftime.
Broberg would add a third straight trey to push the Saints' lead to four, 33-29, before the Cardinals' regained their swagger — and the lead — with a
Katelyn Cruze (Litchfield, Minn.) field goal and a 3-pointer by
Ashley Streveler (Colby, Wis.) to give SMU a 35-33 edge heading into the locker room at the break.
There would be no lopsided runs in the third quarter, with neither team able to gain any traction. St. Scholastica scored the first six points of the quarter on back-to-back 3-pointers by Turner and Broberg for a four-point, 39-35 lead. CSS would equal that four-point cushion, 41-37 with 5:54 to play, but Saint Mary's had an answer, grabbing a four-point lead of its own, 45-41, before settling for a one-point, 48-47 lead with one 10-minute quarter remaining.
The Cardinals clung to the lead for the first seven minutes of the final stanza, only to have CSS claw back into a tie, 60-60 with less than three minutes to play. A pair of
Brooklyn Paulson (Holmen, Wis.) free throws and a
Macey Petron () 3-pointer gave a five-point cushion, 65-60 with 1:48 to play. Broberg complete a rare four-point play on the Saints' next possession to cut the lead down to one, 65-64, but Saint Mary's would score seven of the final 11 points — five coming from the free throw line — to ice the win.
Goettelman — who eclipsed her previous career high with a three-point play with 5:41 to go in the third quarter, shot 5 of 13 from the field with one 3-pointer and was a near-perfect 10-for-11 from the free throw line en route to her career-best 22 points. Paulson chipped in 18 points — leaving the senior just six points shy of 1,000 for her career — while Biermeier added her first double-double of the year with 10 points and 11 boards.
As a team, the Cardinals shot 28.9 percent from the field (22-for-76) with six 3-pointers, but were deadly from the free throw line, nailing 22 of 28.
The Cardinals (4-11 MIAC, 5-13 overall) are back in action — and back on their home court — on Wednesday, hosting Gustavus in a 7 p.m. conference contest at the Saint Mary's Gym.
