ST. PAUL, Minn. — The mission was simple: Win, and the Saint Mary's University women's basketball team would be hosting a game in the opening round of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Playoffs.
 
The mission may have been simple — accomplishing that mission, however, was anything but simple.
 
St. Catherine threw a monkey wrench in the Cardinals' drive to a home playoff berth, outscoring Saint Mary's 22-6 in the second half in dealing SMU a 63-42 setback at SCU's Butler Center Gym.
 
Fortunately for coach David Foley and the Cardinals, all the Wildcats' monkey wrench did was slow Saint Mary's down — it couldn't stop them from landing a home playoff berth.
 
Thanks to Hamline's 59-55 win over Macalester on Wednesday, the Cardinals ended the night tied with St. Olaf for eighth place in the conference standings — and deadlocked for that elusive home playoff position.
 
Due to the second tie-breaker — conference winning percentage against teams above tied teams in the standings — Saint Mary's finished above the Oles, and will be home to host St. Olaf at 1 p.m. at the Saint Mary's Gym when the post-season tournament kicks off on Saturday.
 
It was a good news, bad news first quarter for the Cardinals against St. Catherine Wednesday. The good news? Saint Mary's limited St. Catherine to just 10 first-quarter points. The bad news? The Cardinals were still down by two, managing just two field goals in the opening 10 minutes in falling behind 10-8.
 
And, unfortunately for the Cardinals, the second quarter did nothing to improve their struggles from the field.
 
After going 2-for-10 from the field in the first quarter, SMU managed just two more field goals in the second quarter — hitting on just 2 of 12 attempts from the field — and St. Catherine outscored the Cardinals 15-1 over the final five minutes of the quarter in pushing its lead to 32-14 at the break.
 
There was more good news — and bad news — to open the second half. The good news? Saint Mary's equaled its first-half offensive output, scoring 14 points in the game's third stanza. The bad news? St. Catherine used a half-opening 14-4 run to build its lead to 28, before settling for a 21-point, 49-28 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
 
And a 21-point deficit with 10 minutes to play was just too deep a hole to climb out of, as the Cardinals posted a second straight 14-point quarter, but could gain no traction against the Wildcats, who also finished the quarter with 14 points.
 
Brooklyn Paulson (Holmen, Wis.) finished with a team-high 14 points for the Cardinals, who shot 29.2 percent from the field (14-for-48) — including a 5 of 24 showing from behind the 3-point line — and went 9 of 12 from the free throw line.
 
 
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