ST. JOSEPH, Minn. — Through the first 10 minutes of the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota women's basketball team's nonconference game against UW-Stout, Cardinal coach Brent Pollari must have felt like he was living a bad dream.
 
Make that a full-blown nightmare.
 
Saint Mary's scored five of the game's first eight points, but was outscored 22-2 over the final seven minutes of the quarter, leaving Pollari and the Cardinals staring at a 18-point deficit.
 
So the Cardinals went to work chipping away.
 
Chip … chip … chip …
 
And with five minutes remaining in regulation, that 18-point deficit was down to two, 51-49.
 
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, those final five minutes saw UW-Stout score 13 of the final 18 points to hold off Saint Mary's 64-54 during the opening day of the Saint Benedict Quinlivan & Hughes Tip-Off Tournament.
 
Down 22-5 after the game's opening 10 minutes, Saint Mary's used a second quarter-opening 7-2 run to cut the deficit to 13, 27-14, but the Blue Devils answered, scoring 10 straight points and taking a 37-19 advantage into the locker room at the half.
 
Saint Mary's enjoyed its most productive 10 minutes in the third quarter, outscoring UW-Stout 20-10 in getting to within eight 47-39 heading into the game's final 10 minutes.
 
The Cardinals opened the final quarter by scoring 10 of the first 14 points—including seven unanswered to make it a two-point, 51-49 Blue Devil lead with just over five minutes remaining.
 
A 3-pointer by Kyncaide Diedrich pushed the UW-Stout lead back to five, and, after a Brandi Blattner (Eyota, Minn.) free throw, the Blue Devils closed out the quarter on a 10-4 run to seal the win.
 
Emma Schaefer (Roseville, Minn.) led a trio of Cardinals in double figures with 13 points, while Blattner chipped in 11 points and eight rebounds, and Sam Jones (White Bear Lake, Minn.) finished with 10 points.
 
The Cardinals shot 29 percent from the field (17-for-57), but managed just 4 of 24 3-point attempts, while going 16-for-27 from the free throw line.
 
UW-Stout, which got a game-high 21 points from Diedrich, went 23-for-63 from the field (36.5 percent) and added a 16 of 21 showing from the charity stripe.
 
The Cardinals (1-1 overall) are back in action on Sunday, squaring off against Martin Luther during the second day of the Saint Benedict Quinlivan & Hughes Tip-Off Tournament.