ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University women's basketball team gave Hamline all it could handle, but no matter how hard they tried, the Cardinals could not find a way to overcome a sluggish start.
 
The Cardinals found themselves staring up from the bottom of an 11-2 hole before Wednesday's game against the Pipers was even three minutes old.
 
And, despite a career-night from Ashley Streveler (Colby, Wis.) and a furious fourth-quarter rally, the Cardinals came up short, falling to the Pipers 60-69 at Hutton Arena.
 
Hamline's Iyanna Wieland buried a 3-pointers to open the scoring, and the Pipers would not trail the entire night. HU led by as many as 15 in the first quarter, and pushed that advantage to a game-high 22, 40-18, on a Faith Johnson layup with 2:23 to play in the first half.
 
Saint Mary's cut the deficit to 17 twice over the final two minutes of the half, the second on a pair of Brooklyn Paulson (Holmen, Wis.) free throws that left the Cardinals staring at a 45-28 deficit at the halftime intermission.
 
The Cardinals began chipping away at the Hamline lead in the third quarter, getting as close as 11, 52-41, only to have HU end the quarter by scoring six of the final 10 points to take a 58-45 lead into the fourth quarter.
 
The two teams traded field goals to open the final quarter, before Izzy Goettelman (Winona, Minn.) sandwiched a pair of 3-pointers around a Streveler trey — and suddenly, that double-digit Hamline lead was down to five, 60-55, with six minutes to play in regulation.
 
Hamline answered the Cardinals' 3-point barrage with a 7-0 run to push the lead back to 12, 67-55, with 3:58 remaining, and the Cardinals would get no closer than nine the rest of the way.
 
Streveler finished with a career-high 22 points and was one of three SMU players to finish in double figures — being joined by Paulson with 13 points and Alyssa Coleman (Matteson, Ill.) with 10 — as the trio accounted for 45 of the team's 60 points.
 
As a team, Saint Mary's shot 33.3 percent from the field (20-for-60) with eight 3-pointers and finished 12 of 21 from the free throw line. Hamline, meanwhile, finished 21 of 57 (36.8 %) from the field with eight 3-pointers and connected on 19 of 25 free throws.
 
The Cardinals (2-5 MIAC, 3-7 overall) return to action on Saturday, when they welcome Saint Benedict to the Saint Mary's Gym for a 3 p.m. MIAC matchup.
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