North Park took advantage of a rough shooting start for No. 22 nationally-ranked St. Mary's University of Minnesota, then held off a furious rally from the Cardinals to earn an upset 64-62 victory Tuesday afternoon in non-conference action.

After a tough trip down to Texas where the Vikings went 0-2 in a pair of games, they used a solid defensive effort to force the Cardinals into poor decisions which led to a 29.6 (8 of 27) SMU first half shooting percentage and a 34-23 Vikings' halftime lead.

With North Park ahead 40-32 after a Soly Roman lay-up with 14:24 left in the contest, St. Mary's then pieced together a 13-7 scoring run to close the gap to 47-45 on a three-pointer from Molly O'Toole. But NP responded with a 10-0 run, highlighted by an Amani Davis blocked shot and a three-pointer from senior Annie Shain, to push its lead back to 57-45 with just under five minutes remaining. St. Mary's did trim the deficit to three at 59-56 with a minute left, but again the Vikings held off the comeback with a jumper from Davis and a pair of free throws from Rachel Torres to earn the victory.

Torres finished with a team-high 16 points as she connected on 5 of 10 shots, including a three-pointer. She also had five rebounds and dished five assists. Sophomore Liz Rehberger added 15 points and junior Nicole Kruckman nearly had a double-double of nine points and seven rebounds. O'Toole led St. Mary's with a game-high 18 points.

North Park (8-3) returns to action this Saturday when it opens College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin play with Millikin University for a 5 p.m. contest.