WINONA, Minn. — For the second straight meeting with St. Olaf, the Saint Mary's University women's basketball got a career-high scoring performance.
 
Unfortunately, for the second straight meeting, that career showing wasn't enough to carry SMU to victory.
 
St. Olaf rallied from a nine-point third quarter deficit — and got the game-winning basket from Chloe Smith with 0.3 seconds remaining in regulation — as the Oles dealt Saint Mary's a heartbreaking 65-63 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference setback Saturday afternoon at the SMU Gym.
 
In the teams' first meeting, the Oles who held Saint Mary's to just four second-quarter points — and held off SMU's furious, 29-point fourth-quarter rally — in dealing the Cardinals a 74-64 conference setback in the teams' first meeting of the year on Dec. 2.
 
This time around, it would be the Oles who needed a furious fourth-quarter comeback, which is exactly what they got, outscoring SMU 22-15 in the game's final quarter — including Smith's buzzer-beating layup to overshadow Zoe Fink's (Stevens Point, Wis.) career-high 17-point performance.
 
The Oles kicked things off with five unanswered points and extended its first-quarter lead to five on two separate occasions — 7-2 and 10-5 — but the Cardinals would battle back, closing within one three times, only to have St. Olaf close the quarter on a Sarah Tangen jumper to take a three-point, 19-16 lead after the game's opening 10 minutes.
 
St. Olaf opened the second quarter in much the same fashion in which it opened the first, netting the first six points to extend its lead to nine, 25-16. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Zoe Fink (Stevens Point, Wis.), a pair of free throws from Anelise Maccoux (Mukwonago, Wis.), and a layup by Riley Schiernbeck (Ida Grove, Iowa), however, transformed that nine-point deficit into SMU's first lead of the half, 26-25, with 2:58 to play until the break.
 
The Cardinals would lead once more, 28-27 on a Maddie Wall (Cameron, Wis.) 3-pointer, but the Oles would answer with a triple of their own to take a two-point, 30-28 lead into the halftime intermission.
 
The Cardinals stole a pair out of the Oles' playbook to kick off the third quarter, netting back-to-back-to-back field goals — all coming from Grace Schaffer (Farmington, Minn.) — to snag a 34-30 lead in the opening minute of the frame.
 
Chloe Smith delivered a free throw and a 3-pointer to pull St. Olaf even, 34-34, only to have Wall knock down a triple and a mid-range jumper as part of a 6-0 run that gave SMU a 40-34 cushion midway through quarter No. 3.
 
St. Olaf clawed its way to within one, 42-41, but the Cardinals closed out the quarter on a 6-3 run to take a five-point, 48-43 lead into the game's final quarter.
 
The Oles used a 7-2 quarter-opening run to cut the SMU lead to one, 50-49, but each time St. Olaf appeared to have snatched away the momentum, the Cardinals had an answer — with Fink knocking down a pair of clutch 3-pointers and Schaffer draining one of her own as part of an 11-2 Saint Mary's spurt that gave the Cardinals a nine-point, 63-54 lead midway through the quarter.
 
And just when the Cardinals were beginning to feel comfortable playing with the lead, the Oles made one final push, rattling off seven consecutive points to make it a two-point game, 63-61, with 57.9 seconds remaining in regulation.
 
Paige Yagodinski drained one of two free throws after a Saint Mary's turnover and intentional foul to cut the SMU lead to one, 63-62, and Yagodinski would knock down one of two free throws on St. Olaf's ensuing possession to knot the game at 63-63 with 32.8 ticks on the clock. Saint Mary's game-winning jumper by Wall hit the front of the rim, and after a St. Olaf time out, Smith worked her way free and delivered a layup with 0.3 seconds on the clock to give St. Olaf the come-from-behind win.
 
Along with Fink's team-high 17-point effort — which included a 5 of 7 performance from behind the 3-point line — SMU also got 11 points from Schaffer, who had recorded a career-best 23-point night in the Cardinals' first meeting with St. Olaf.
 
As a team, SMU shot 43.1 percent from the field (25-for-58), with nine 3-pointers, and finished 4 of 9 from the free throw line.
 
The Cardinals (0-12 MIAC, 2-15 overall) are back in action — and back on their home court — on Wednesday, when they welcome Hamline to the SMU Gym for a 7 p.m. MIAC showdown.
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