MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — After surrendering a combined 25 3-pointers in their previous two games, the Saint Mary's University women's basketball team clamped down on Augsburg's success from downtown, limiting the Auggies to just six field goals from beyond the arc Wednesday evening.
 
Unfortunately, that defensive effort was not enough, as an ice-cold third quarter — in which SMU was held without a point for the final 7:31 — proved to be the Cardinals' undoing.
 
Saint Mary's, despite a gallant fourth-quarter comeback effort, could not overcome that frigid third stanza — in which Augsburg outscored Saint Mary's 23-4 — in falling to the Auggies 63-52 in a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game at Si Melby Hall.
 
Neither team could pull away in the game's opening 10 minutes, with the Cardinals holding leads of 9-8, 12-11, and their biggest lead of the quarter, 14-12, on a Grace Schaffer (Farmington, Minn.) jumper with 54 seconds to play. Augsburg would get a 3-pointer from Kalena Myers to regain the lead, 15-14, only to have Schaffer knock down one of two free throws to end the first quarter the way it started, deadlocked.
 
Augsburg found its offensive rhythm early in the second half and held its biggest lead of the half, seven points, twice — 22-15 and 25-18. Saint Mary's, however, refused to fold, getting back-to-back 3-pointers from Schaffer and Zoe Fink (Stevens Point, Wis.) to get SMU within one, 25-24 at the intermission.
 
The Auggies came out of the break red-hot, scoring the first seven points to push that one-point halftime advantage into a seven-point, 31-24 cushion. Kali Olson (New York Mills, Minn.) and Maddie Wall (Cameron, Wis.) answered with back-to-back field goals to cut the deficit to three, 31-28 with 7:31 to play.
 
And then came the Cardinals' deep freeze, as Augsburg rattled off 17 unanswered points to transform their three-point advantage into a commanding 20-point, 48-28 lead with one 10-minute quarter remaining.
 
Saint Mary's rebounded with its best quarter of the night in the fourth, scoring 24 points — and whittled that 20-point deficit down to eight, 60-52 on a Fink 3-pointer — her fourth of the evening — but the Cardinals' late-game push ran out of time.
 
Fink scored a career-high 14 points, an effort that was matched by Schaffer, to lead the Cardinal offense, while Wall and Olson each chipped in eight points. As a team, Saint Mary's shot 33.3 percent from the field (18-for-54), with a season-high nine 3-pointers, and added a 7 of 16 effort (43.8 %) from the free throw line.
 
The Cardinals (0-8 MIAC, 2-10 overall) return home to the Saint Mary's Gym on Saturday, when SMU plays host to Macalester in a 1 p.m. conference showdown.
  Read Full Article