WINONA, Minn. — This time around, there would be no need for a 19-point, four-quarter comeback.
The Cardinals made sure of that.
The Saint Mary's women's basketball team — which rallied from 19 points down with 10 minutes to play to beat St. Olaf 62-60 last Wednesday — put four players in double figures, as the Cardinals locked up its second straight win with an 81-67 rout of Carleton Saturday afternoon at the Saint Mary's Gym.
Saint Mary's appeared to have the upper hand in the opening quarter racing out to a 9-4 lead on back-to-back-to-back field goals by
Izzy Goettelman (Winona, Minn.),
Brooklyn Paulson (Holmen, Wis.), and
Graysin Hartjes (Kaukauna, Wis.), but Carleton would answer, closing the quarter on a 6-3 run to whittle the SMU lead to two, 12-10.
The Cardinals would rebuild their advantage in the second quarter — this time thanks to the long range shooting of
Ashley Streveler (Colby, Wis.) — who rained in three second-quarter 3-pointers — and Saint Mary's would take a six-point, 31-25 lead into the halftime intermission.
The Knights came out sizzling to open the second half, outscoring SMU 14-9 to cut the Cardinal lead to one, 40-39 midway through the third quarter.
Enter
Alyssa Coleman (Matteson, Ill.), who scored eight unanswered points to spearhead a 12-2, quarter-ending Saint Mary's run that gave SMU a 52-41 advantage with 10 minutes to play.
There would be no need for any fourth-quarter heroics this time around, however, as Saint Mary's outscored the Knights 29-26 in pushing its record to 2-2 on the year.
Coleman scored a team- and career-high 17 points on 7 of 8 shooting from the field and a 3-for-6 effort from the line to lead four SMU players in double figures. Streveler finished with 15 points — thanks in part to four 3-pointers — while Goettelman and Paulson chipped in 11 and 10 points, respectively.
The Cardinals shot 47.0 percent from the field (31-for-66) and drained a season-high 12 3-pointers, while finishing 7 of 13 from the free throw line. Carleton, which was led by Amelia Solt's game-high 18 points, finished 23-for-55 from the field (41.8 percent), but were just 6 of 19 from beyond the arc, while going 15 of 19 from the charity stripe.
The Cardinals (2-2 MIAC, 2-2 overall) are back in action — and back on their home court — on Wednesday, as they welcome St. Catherine to the Saint Mary's Gym for a 7 p.m. conference matchup.
