WINONA, Minn. — It was a tale of two halves for the Saint Mary's University women's basketball team Wednesday evening.
 
Unfortunately, the Cardinals' half — the second — wasn't quite as good as St. Scholastica's.
 
The Saints built a commanding 19-point first-half advantage, and then held on for dear life, as the Cardinals came storming back, only to fall five points short in a 63-58 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference setback to the Saints at the SMU Gym.
 
The Cardinals kept paced with the Saints early in the opening quarter, as the two teams found themselves deadlocked at 7-7 early. From there, the Cardinals' shooting touch turned ice cold, as St. Scholastica rattled off 12 unanswered points and that 7-7 stalemate had transformed into a 19-7 CSS advantage with 1:26 to play. The Saints would outscore SMU 6-3 over the final minute and a half to take a 25-10 lead after 10 minutes.
 
Saint Mary's clamped down on the Saints' offense in the second stanza, holding CSS to just 10 points. Unfortunately, 10 points were more than the Cardinals could produce, as SMU struggled to find its rhythm, shooting 25 percent (4 of 16) from the field and netting just nine points in heading into the halftime break staring at a 35-19 deficit.
 
After a sluggish start to the third quarter — in which CSS extended its lead to 20, 43-23 — the Cardinals went to work, closing the quarter on a 15-3 run to get within eight, 46-38, heading into the game's final 10 minutes.
 
And what a 10-minute period it was for the Cardinals.
 
Fueled by and Izzy Goettelman (Winona, Minn.) three-point play and eight consecutive points from Riley Schiernbeck (Ida Grove, Iowa), Saint Mary's clawed within three, 54-51 with over three minutes to play. CSS would push its lead back to six twice, including 59-53, only to have Saint Mary's rattled off five unanswered points to cut the lead to one, 59-58.
 
After an SMU miss on its next possession, Hannah Compton hit a pair of free throws to put the Saints up by three, 61-58. SMU missed a jumper on its next possession, hauled in the offensive rebound, missed again, but grabbed a second straight offensive board. After a timeout, however, the Cardinals turned the ball over, and CSS hit a pair of free throws with 5.4 seconds to seal the win.
 
Grace Schaffer (Farmington, Minn.) — coming off a career-high 23 points against St. Olaf last Saturday and her first collegiate double-double against Concordia two days later — scored a team-high 11 points for the Cardinals, while Goettelman chipped in 10 points.
 
As a team, Saint Mary's finished 29-for-69 (29.0 %) from the field, but were just 7 of 29 from behind the 3-point line, while adding an 11 of 19 effort from the free throw line. CSS shot 43.2 percent (19-for-44), with 10 3-pointers, and went 15 of 18 from the charity stripe.
 
The Cardinals (0-6 MIAC, 2-6 overall) are back in action on Saturday, when they travel to Bethel's Robertson Center Gym in Arden Hills, Minn., for a 1 p.m. MIAC showdown with the Royals.
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