WINONA, Minn. – The St. Olaf College women's basketball team picked up the first Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Playoffs victory in program history by scoring the final 11 points of the game in a 62-57 road win over Saint Mary's University (Minn.) in the opening round on Saturday afternoon at Saint Mary's Gym.

Ninth-seeded St. Olaf (9-17) trailed eighth-seeded Saint Mary's (8-18) by a 57-51 margin with 2:57 to play before holding the Cardinals scoreless the rest of the way to pull out the five-point win. The Oles led for just 2:35 in the game and took the lead for good on a go-ahead three-pointer by senior K'Lynn Lewis with 1:35 remaining.

With the win, St. Olaf will head to top-seeded Augsburg in the quarterfinals of the MIAC Playoffs on Tuesday, Feb. 22 at 5:45 p.m. in Minneapolis. Prior to Saturday, the Oles had lost all three of their prior games in the tournament, bowing out in the quarterfinals in 2002, 2012, and 2014.

Lewis scored a game-high 24 points – her second-straight 24-point performance – on 7-for-15 shooting from the field and 8-for-10 shooting from the free-throw line. Junior Rachel Kelly was also in double figures with 17 points and eight rebounds for the Oles, who held the Cardinals to 3-for-16 shooting (18.8 percent) in the fourth quarter. Junior Sophie Olmen and first year Paige Yagodinski each added seven points in the win.

Lewis scored eight of St. Olaf's 14 first-quarter points, but Saint Mary's hit four of its first five three-pointers to take a 12-4 lead a little over three minutes in. Trailing 16-6 inside the final two minutes of the quarter, the Oles went on an 8-0 run to close the quarter to close the gap to two points, with Lewis scoring six of the eight points in the run.

Six-straight points from Jada Biermeier late in the second quarter gave the Cardinals a 26-20 lead with 2:56 to go before halftime, but the Oles scored the next eight points to take their first lead of the game at 28-26 on a layup by Yagodinski with 46 seconds remaining. Kelly hit a jumper in the closing seconds of the half to send St. Olaf into the locker room with a 30-28 lead following a half where the Oles only led for 31 seconds.

Brooklyn Paulson – the MIAC's leading scorer at over 18 points per game – scored 10 of her team-high 23 points in the third quarter to help Saint Mary's take a 45-42 lead through three. A Paulson three-pointer with 1:03 to go gave the Cardinals a 45-37 lead, but St. Olaf answered with a three-pointer by Yagodinski and a jumper by Kelly to cut its deficit back to three.

Saint Mary's held the lead until the final three minutes of the game when the Oles went on the decisive 11-0 closing run. Ashley Streveler hit a three-pointer with 2:57 to go to give the Cardinals a 57-51 lead, but Saint Mary's missed its final eight shots of the game from that point on.

After Streveler's three-pointer, Kelly hit one of her own on the next possession and Lewis scored the next five points – including the go-ahead three-pointer with 1:35 to play – to put St. Olaf on top, 59-57. After a pair of stops, Kelly hit two free throws to give the Oles' a four-point lead with 22 seconds remaining to help close out the win.

After making three of its first four three-pointers, Saint Mary's was just 4-for-24 (16.7 percent) from behind the arc over the final 36:42 of the game. Senior Camryn Scott provided a lift for the Oles off the bench, recording the highest +/- differential of any player in the game at +20 in her 24 minutes on court.