EAU CLAIRE, Wis. — After two dominating first-half performances in knocking off UW-River Falls and UM-Morris last weekend, the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota women's basketball team found themselves staring at a 13-point, first-half deficit in its nonconference game against UW-Eau Claire Tuesday evening.
 
No problem.
 
They may have had to take a different, come-from-behind approach this time around, but the end result was the same for the Cardinals, as Saint Mary's rallied to pick up its third straight win to open the season with a 71-62 victory over the Blugolds at Zorn Arena.
 
The Cardinals got off to a slow start, falling behind 27-14 with 5:19 remaining in the opening half, but Saint Mary's used a 15-2 run over those final five minutes to pull even at the break, 29-29.
 
UW-Eau Claire was just as quick-starting in the second half, scoring the first five points for a 34-29 advantage. The Cardinals grabbed their first lead of the second half—and first since leading 12-11 six minutes into the first half—on an Emma Schaefer (Falcon Heights, Minn.) 3-pointer with 13:39 remaining.
 
Seven straight UW-EC points gave the Blugolds a seven-point edge, 47-40, but again the Cardinals had an answer, using a 13-6 run—capped by a Molly O'Toole (Plymouth, Minn.) 3-pointer—to knot the game at 53-53 with 6:27 on the clock.
 
And over those final six minutes, Saint Mary's would out score UW-Eau Claire 18-9 to ice win No. 3.
 
Schaefer, O'Toole and Sam Jones (White Bear Lake, Minn.) all tossed in 12 points to lead the Cardinal offense, while Bridget Pethke (New London, Wis.) also scored in double figures, finishing with 11 points and a team-best seven assists. The 12-point efforts were career highs for both O'Toole and Jones.
 
The Cardinals shot 36 percent from the field and knocked down 11 of their 23 field goals from behind the 3-point line—with six different players draining at least one trey.
 
Teenie Lichtfuss scored a game-high 14 points, with Madison Johnson adding 13 for the Blugolds, who lost for the first time in three contests this season.
 
The Cardinals (3-0 overall) kick off the home portion of their schedule on Friday, hosting UW-Stout in a 7 p.m. nonconference game at the Saint Mary's Gym.