DULUTH, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University women's basketball team learned the hard way what can happen when holding a 14-point first-quarter lead in last Saturday's 67-60 loss to Macalester.
 
Monday evening, the Cardinals tried to teach St. Scholastica that same lesson.
 
The Saints, however, refused to follow the curriculum.
 
St. Scholastica raced out to a 16-2 advantage early in the first quarter, and while the Cardinals erased all but two points of that deficit, they could never get over the hump, allowing the Saints to pull away late in dealing Saint Mary's a 77-61 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference setback.
 
For the second game in a row, the Cardinals were immersed in a game that had a team lead by 14 early in the first quarter.
 
Unlike last Saturday's 14-0 SMU run to open its game against Macalester, it was the Saints who came out red-hot, scoring 16 of the first 18 points — holding Saint Mary's to just a pair of Katelyn Cruze (Litchfield, Minn.) free throws — to grab what should have been a commanding 16-2 lead.
 
Saint Mary's whittled the Saints' lead to seven twice, including 20-13 late, only to have Carleton beat the buzzer with a layup to give CSS a nine-point, 22-13 edge heading into the second quarter.
 
A Riley Schiernbeck (Ida Grove, Iowa) pulled Saint Mary's to within one, 22-21 — the closest the Cardinals had been since the game was tied 2-2 on Cruze's two early first-quarter free throws — but the Saints answered with 10 straight points to extend the lead back to nine, 32-26. Zoe Fink (Stevens Point, Wis.) took a page out of Carlson's first-quarter playbook, knocking down a 3-pointer with one second on the clock to pull SMU within six, 32-26 at the half.
 
Saint Mary's cut into the Saints' six point advantage, getting to within two, 44-42, on a Grace Schaffer (Farmington, Minn.) 3-pointer, but every time the Cardinals threatened, the Saints had an answer, and when the third quarter ended, SMU was exactly where the quarter started —trailing by six, 51-46.
 
Unfortunately, while Saint Mary's was in dire need of one big, fourth-quarter push, the Cardinals' tank was empty, as the Saints took advantage, outscoring SMU 23-13 over the game's final 10 minutes to pull away for the 16-point win.
 
Maddie Wall (Cameron, Wis.) led the way for the Cardinals, scoring 11 points, with Schaffer and Kali Olson (New York Mills, Minn.) each chipping in nine. As a team, Saint Mary's finished 19 of 43 from the field (44.2 %), with four 3-pointers, while knocking down 19 of 30 free throws.
 
The Cardinals (0-17 MIAC, 2-20 overall) return home on Wednesday, when they welcome Augsburg to the Saint Mary's Gym for a 7 p.m. conference matchup.
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