NORTHFIELD, Minn. — On a night that saw the Saint Mary's University women's basketball team knocked down a season-high 13 3-pointers, it was six shots from a stationary position 15 feet from the basket that helped seal the Cardinals' fate.
 
St. Olaf knocked down six free throws to cap a game-ending 8-1 run that lifted the Oles to a 75-69 win over the Cardinals Wednesday evening in a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference contest at Skoglund Center Gym.
 
With Saint Mary's leading by one, 68-67, on a pair of Alyssa Coleman (Matteson, Ill.) free throws with 1:45 on the clock, the Oles got a field goal from Rachel Kelly and six points from the charity stripe — compared to a lone Saint Mary's free throw in that same span — to seal the victory.
 
The Cardinals played with the lead for the majority of the first half — including racing out to a quick 10-5 lead to open the game.
 
St. Olaf, however, answered SMU's game-opening 10-5 burst by rattling off eight unanswered points to grab its biggest lead of the half, 13-10. Saint Mary's regained the upper hand by ending the first quarter on a 11-6 run to take a two-point, 21-19, lead into quarter No. 2.
 
It was more of the same in the game's second 10-minute period, with SMU pushing its advantage to four on two separate occasions, and led by three, 34-31 on a Coleman layup with less than two minutes to play. Three straight points pulled the Oles even in the waning seconds, but Brooklyn Paulson (Holmen, Wis.) delivered a clutch 3-pointer with seconds to play to give Saint Mary's a three-point, 37-24 lead at the half.
 
St. Olaf wrestled away the momentum — and the lead — in the third quarter, outscoring the Cardinals 24-13 in that 10-minute span to take an eight-point, 58-50, lead into the game's final 10 minutes.
 
Saint Mary's opened the fourth quarter red-hot, nailing back-to-back-to-back 3-pointers — the first by Ashley Streveler (Colby, Wis.) and the next two by Graysin Hartjes (Kaukauna, Wis) — to give the Cardinals a 59-58 lead.
 
Neither team would leave by more than three points over the next six minutes, and Coleman's two free throws gave SMU its final lead, 68-67, with 1:45 to play — and the Oles made the most of the remaining time to ice their seventh conference win of the season.
 
Paulson scored a team-high 19 points for the Cardinals, while Streveler knocked down five 3-pointers en route to a 15-point performance. Grace Schaffer (Farmington, Minn.) also finished in double figures for the Cardinals, netting 11 points.
 
As a team, Saint Mary's shot 44.2 percent from the field (23-for-52) — including an impressive 13-for-22 showing from beyond the 3-point line — and 10 of 16 from the free throw line.
 
 
The Cardinals (5-12 MIAC, 6-14 overall) return home on Saturday, as they host St. Scholastica in a 3 p.m. conference showdown at the Saint Mary's Gym.
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