DULUTH, Minn. — There would be no late-game, come-from-behind rallies — or heartbreaking defeats.
The Saint Mary's University women's basketball team made sure of that.
The Cardinals — coming off back-to-back-to-back nail-biting setbacks in which their late-game rallies would fall just short — put four players in double figures and outscored St. Scholastica 42-29 in the second half en route to a 74-55 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory Saturday afternoon.
The first quarter was a game of runs – literally.
The Cardinals came out sizzling in the opening quarter — thanks in large part to
Izzy Goettelman (Winona, Minn.) who scored five of SMU's seven points in a 7-0, quarter-opening run. St. Scholastica responded with 14 unanswered points for a 14-7 cushion with 2:16 to play, and Saint Mary's closed out the game's opening 10 minutes scoring the final six points to cut the deficit to one, 14-13.
Ashley Streveler (Colby, Wis.) opened the second quarter the way she ended the first — with a 3-pointer — to put the Cardinals in front 16-14. After a Liz Frase bucket knotted the game at 16-16,
Maddie Wall () delivered five straight points to give the Cardinals their biggest lead of the quarter — a five-point, 21-16 cushion with eight minutes to play.
Both teams would play with the lead over the final eight minutes, with Saint Mary's closing the quarter recording six straight points — field goals from
Alyssa Coleman (Matteson, Ill.) and Goettelman, and a pair of
Brooklyn Paulson (Holmen, Wis.) free throws — to give SMU a six-point, 32-26 edge heading to the locker room.
Saint Mary's picked up right where it left off to open the third quarter, pushing their six-point halftime lead to 14, 45-31 on a pair of Coleman free throws to cap a 9-0 Cardinal run with 5:29 remaining in the quarter. SMU would extend the lead to as many as 16, before settling for a 13-point, 52-39 advantage heading into the game's final 10 minutes.
A Miranda Broberg 3-pointer to open the fourth quarter got the Saints within 10, 52-42, but from there it was all Saint Mary's. Paulson drained a 3-pointer and added a pair of free throws as part of a 7-0 Cardinal run to push the lead to 17, 59-42 — and SMU breezed the rest of the way in snapping its three-game losing streak.
Paulson led the SMU offense, scoring 16 points — including a perfect 10-for-10 showing from the free throw line — and added 10 rebound for her first double-double of the season. Goettelman chipped in 14 points, while
Katelyn Cruze (Litchfield, Minn.) and Streveler added 12 and 11 points, respectively.
As a team, Saint Mary's shot 42.9 percent from the field (24-for-56), with eight 3-pointers, and were 18-for-26 from the free throw line. The Saints, meanwhile, finished 18 of 50 from the field (36.0 %), with 10 3-pointers, and finished 9 of 16 from the line.
The Cardinals (3-7 MIAC, 4-9 overall) are right back in action on Monday, when they return home to the Saint Mary's Gym for a 7 p.m. conference matchup against Augsburg.
