WINONA, Minn. — If Saint Mary's University women's basketball coach David Foley could bottle the Cardinals' second-quarter performance against Carleton and sell it, the SMU head coach would probably be an overnight millionaire.
 
Just three days after managing nine points in the second 10-minute frame in a loss to Gustavus, the Cardinals erupted for 34 points in the second quarter Saturday and rolled to an 85-58 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory over the Knights at the Saint Mary's Gym.
 
After Saint Mary's first-quarter performance, the Cardinals' second-quarter turnaround did not seem in the realm of possibilities. Saint Mary's held leads as big as seven in the game's opening 10 minutes — including 18-11 on a pair of Valerie Higgins' (Sioux Falls, S.D.) free throws to cap a 7-0 run with 3:05 to play.
 
Over those final three minutes — and the first minute of the second quarter — the Knights took charge, scoring 15 unanswered points for a 26-18 lead.
 
And then the Cardinals' offense came to life — in a big, big way.
 
Saint Mary's would score 32 of the next 36 points — led by the long-range sharpshooting of Brooklyn Paulson (Holmen, Wis.) and Ashley Streveler (Colby, Wis.) — to take a 20-point, 50-30 advantage and carried a 17-point, 52-35 cushion into the locker room at the break.
 
Paulson ended the half with 16 points, one more than Streveler — who knocked down five of SMU's 10 first-half 3-pointers — to lead the Cardinals, whose 34-point effort was their most  since the NCAA returned to the quarter system prior the 2015-16 season.
 
The Cardinals picked up right where they left off to open the third quarter, scoring 12 of the first 14 points to push their lead to 29, 67-38.
 
And the Cardinals never looked back, leading by as many as 30 in both the third and fourth quarters in snapping a three-game losing streak and picking up their first home win in five tries.
 
Paulson equaled her season-high for the third time this season, pouring in a game-high 24 points, while Streveler finished with 15 and Goettelman chipped in 10.
 
The Cardinals — who got scoring from 10 different players en route to their highest-offensive output since netting 85 against Hamline on Jan. 11, 2020 — shot 47.5 percent from the field (28-for-59), knocked down a season-best 12 3-pointers and hit on 17 of 19 free throws.
 
The Cardinals (3-5 MIAC, 4-7 overall) are back in action — and back on their home court — on Monday, as they welcome Augsburg to the Saint Mary's Gym for a 7 p.m. conference showdown.