MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — It has been a wild ride for the Saint Mary's University women's basketball team over the past seven days.
Last Wednesday, the Cardinals were sitting on Cloud 9, after putting together arguably their best performance of the season in a trilling, 67-64 win over conference heavyweight Gustavus.
Three days later, Saint Mary's came crashing back to earth, struggling to find its offensive rhythm in a lopsided 72-29 loss to Bethel. It was back into the stratosphere 48 hours later, as SMU got 25 points and 11 rebounds from
Brooklyn Paulson (Holmen, Wis.) in a 66-57 victory over St. Olaf.
Which brought the Cardinals to Wednesday — and a road matchup against league-leading Augsburg.
As much as the week had been a rollercoaster ride for the Cardinals, Wednesday's match-up with the Auggies was a microcosm of the entire week wrapped up in a 40-minute game.
Saint Mary's had the upper hand early, and put together a furious fourth-quarter rally, but had their upset bid fall just short, as Augsburg escaped with a 64-56 victory over the Cardinals at Si Melby Hall.
The first quarter was a see-saw affair, with neither team able to build a lead bigger than a three-point edge — which the Cardinals equaled twice, 17-14 with 2:23 to play, and 19-16 on an
Izzy Goettelman (Winona, Minn.) layup to end the quarter.
Saint Mary's pushed their advantage to six, 22-16, on an
Ashley Streveler (Colby, Wis.) 3-pointer to open the second quarter, but Augsburg would answer by rattling off 14 consecutive points to take a 30-22 lead with 4:06 to play before halftime.
Goettelman knocked down the third of her three first-half 3-pointers to get SMU back within five, but Augsburg scored the final four points of the quarter for a 34-25 lead at the break.
Paulson kicked off the third quarter with a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to six, 34-28, but Jaley Coplin answered with back-to-back 3-pointers of her own, and the Auggies would extend their lead to as many as 15, 48-33, before settling for a 50-40 cushion heading to the fourth quarter.
Saint Mary's methodically whittled the Augsburg lead down to six, 57-51, on a Paulson 3-pointer with 2:19 to play in regulation, and made it a five-point game, 58-53, thanks to a Macy Petron (Royalton, Minn.) bucket with 1:29 remaining.
After Augsburg knocked down four free throws to push the lead back to nine, 62-53, Streveler would convert three straight free throws — after being fouled on a 3-point attempt — to once again cut the deficit to six, 62-56, only to have Kalena Myers drain two more free throws to seal the win.
Paulson finished with a team-leading 19 points on 7 of 16 shooting — including a 5-for-12 effort from behind the 3-point line, while Goettelman chipped in 13 points. As a team, the Cardinals shot 36.8 percent from the field (21-for-57) with nine 3-pointers and a 5 of 7 effort from the free throw line.
The Cardinals (6-13 MIAC, 7-15 overall) close out the home portion of their schedule on Saturday, welcoming Concordia to the Saint Mary's Gym for a 1 p.m. MIAC matchup.
