WINONA, Minn. — It was raining 3s inside the Saint Mary's Gum Wednesday evening, as the Saint Mary's University and UW-La Crosse women's basketball teams combined for 14 3-pointers.
 
Problem was, UW-La Crosse accounted for 11 of those treys, as the Eagles made the most of their Midas touch from downtown in dealing the Cardinals a 79-41 nonconference setback at the Saint Mary's Gym.
 
The Cardinals carried the hot hand right out the gate, knocking down their first four field goals — including a 3-pointer from Lindsay Letter (Trempealeau, Wis.) — to grab a 9-7 advantage. Eight first-quarter turnovers, however, allowed UW-La Crosse to hang around early, and an 11-2 run gave the Eagles their biggest lead of the quarter, 18-11. SMU got a 3-pointer and a pair of free throws from Grace Schaffer (Farmington, Minn.) to close the quarter and get SMU within two, 18-16.
 
It would be the Eagles who would open the second quarter red-hot, knocking down three straight field goals — including back-to-back 3-pointers from Lauryn Milner and Kailee Meeker — to expand its lead to 10, 26-16, three minutes into the stanza. And the Eagles continued to rain in 3s over the final seven minutes, finishing 5 of 8 from beyond the arc in building its lead to 13, 40-17, at the half.
 
Saint Mary's whittled the Eagle lead to nine, 40-31, with back-to-back field goals from Katelyn Cruze (Litchfield, Minn.) and Schaffer to open the second half, only to have UW-La Crosse ratlte off 12 unanswered points to push the lead to 52-31. SMU netted six of the final 10 points of the quarter to make it 56-37 heading to the game's final 10-minute period.
 
The brief quarter break did nothing to cool off the Eagles, who scored 12 of the first 13 points — and limited Saint Mary's to just an Anelise Maccoux (Mukwonago, Wis.) field and a pair of free throws — in pulling away for the lopsided win.
 
Schaffer finished with 13 points to lead the way for the Cardinals, who shot 39.5 percent from the field (15-for-38) with three 3-pointers, and went 8 of 12 from the free throw line.
 
UW-La Crosse, meanwhile, finished 31-for-70 from the field (44.3 %) – including an 11-for-34 effort from behind the arc — and went 6 of 9 from the line.
 
The Cardinals (2-8 overall) return to action on Dec. 28, when they travel to Elmhurst, Ill, for a 2 p.m. nonconference game against Elmhurst.
  Read Full Article