By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
DUBUQUE, Iowa — For the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota women's basketball team, the beginning of the first and second quarters against the University of Dubuque was nothing special.
 
The end, however, certainly was.
 
The Cardinals surrendered the opening four points in both the first and second quarters in their nonconference game against the Spartans, only to close both quarters in dominating style—scoring the final eight points in the first and the last nine of the second.
 
And thanks in part to those two, quarter-ending runs—and a 15-8 game-ending scoring advantage—Saint Mary's collected its second straight win, dropping UD 74-70 at Stolz Sports Center Tuesday evening.
 
The Spartans got out of the blocks quickly in the first quarter, netting the game's first two field goals. Saint Mary's clawed back to pull even, 12-12, before erupting for eight unanswered points to take a 20-12 lead after the game's opening 10 minutes.
 
The second quarter proved to be eerily similar for the Cardinals, who surrendered back-to-back field goals to open the stanza, and—despite building a nine-point lead—were staring at a 26-26 deadlock with 2:55 remaining.
 
That game-tying basket by Cece Pope, however, seemed to wake the sleeping giant that is the Cardinal offensive attack, as Saint Mary's rattled off 14 of the final 16 points—highlighted by back-to-back 3-pointers by Alexa Huisman (Adrian, Minn.)—to take a commanding, 40-28 advantage into the locker room at the break.
 
UD took a page out of the Cardinals' playbook in the third quarter, allowing Saint Mary's to score the first basket—and four of the quarter's first five points, to build its biggest lead of the game, 44-29 on a pair of Abby Winter (Winona, Minn.) free throws—only to score 17 of the final 24 points to cut the deficit to five, 51-46 heading into the game's final 10 minutes.
 
The Spartans opened the final stanza on an 11-4 run—capped by five straight points T'Nauzahre Robinson—to take a 57-55 lead with six minutes to play. UD would equal that three-point lead, 62-59 with less than four minutes on the clock, but the Cardinals used another patented late-quarter run—scoring 10 unanswered points and 15 of the game's final 23 to seal the win.
 
Huisman led a balanced Cardinal attack, scoring 13 points, while Savannah Bleess (Kenyon, Minn.) and Brandi Blattner (Eyota, Minn.) each finished with 12 points, and Kirsten Keefe (Chatfield, Min.) and Rachel Kedl (Lamberton, Minn.) both chipped in 10. Blattner also hauled in a team-best 12 rebounds en route to her third double-double in the Cardinals' first four games.
 
The Cardinals shot 34 percent from the field (20-for-59—and drained seven 3-pointers—while going 27-for-34 from the free throw line. UD, meanwhile, hit on 35 percent of its field goal attempts (27-for-64) with six 3-pointers and a 10 of 12 showing from the charity stripe.
 
Abbey Meyer led the way for the Spartans (0-3 overall), scoring a game-high 17 points, with Morgan Boer and Pope tallying 12 and 10 points, respectively.
 
The Cardinals (3-1 overall) are back on the road on Sunday, traveling to Eau Claire, Wis., for a 3 p.m. nonconference game against UW-Eau Claire.