ARDEN HILLS, Minn. — When the Saint Mary's University women's basketball team took the court for Saturday's showdown against Bethel, the Cardinals were still smarting from a loss to St. Scholastica on Wednesday — a game in which SMU rallied from a 20-point second-half deficit, only to fall five points short in a 63-58 loss to the Saints.
 
The Royals could certainly relate.
 
Bethel lined up against the Cardinals having also rallied from a 20-point second-half deficit in their most recent game on Wednesday against St. Catherine, and, just like SMU, had that rally come up five points short in a 58-53 setback to the Wildcats.
 
And the Cardinals found themselves once again in need of a huge fourth-quarter comeback, but the Royals refused to comply, as Bethel — fueled by 10 of 23 showing from behind the 3-point line — dealt Saint Mary's a 66-49 setback at Robertson Center Gym.
 
The first quarter continued to be SMU's Achilles heel, as the Cardinals found themselves staring up from a 15-point hole after the game's opening 10 minutes. Bethel broke a 4-4 deadlock with 11 unanswered points in racing to an 11-point, 15-6 lead with just over two minutes to play.
 
Lindsey Lettner (Trempealeau, Wis.) ended the Royal run with a layup, but Bethel cwould close the quarter scoring eight of the final 10 points to grab its biggest lead of the quarter, 23-8.
 
Unfazed by the daunting 15-point deficit, the Cardinals came out to open the second half knocking down three straight field goals — one by Grace Schaffer (Farmington, Minn.), one by Lettner, and one by Katelyn Cruze (Litchfield, Minn.) — and a pair of free throws by Maddie Wall (Cameron, Wis.) to cut the BU lead to seven, 23-17 with more than eight minutes to play until halftime.
 
And the Cardinals weren't finished, as Cruze drilled a pair of free throws to make it a five-point game, 23-18. Anna Garfield ended SMU's quarter-opening 10-0 burst with a 3-pointer with 5:26 to play, and, thanks to a free throw and a pair of 3-pointers, the Royals' lead had climbed back to 15, 33-18. Schaffer and Wall would answer with back-to-back 3-pointers of their own before the half ended, getting SMU to within nine, 33-24, at the break.
 
Cruze scored a layup to open the third quarter for the Cardinals, but that would be as close as they would get, as Bethel outscored SMU 17-7 the rest of the quarter to extend its lead to 17, 50-33 heading into the game's final quarter
 
Saint Mary's poured in 16 points in that final 10-minute period — but so did the Royals, as Bethel built its lead to as many as 21, 60-39, before SMU closed out the quarter on a 10-6 run.
 
Wall posted a career-high 12 points, going 3 of 9 from the field with one 3-pointer and a 5 of 6 effort from the free throw line. Cruze also finished in double figures with 10 points for the Cardinals, who shot 39.1 percent from the field (18 of 46) with a pair of 3-pointers, and finished 11 of 12 from the charity stripe.
 
The Cardinals (0-7 MIAC, 2-7 overall) are back in action on Wednesday, when they return home to the Saint Mary's Gym for a 5 p.m. nonconference game against UW-La Crosse.
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