Game Summary

MOORHEAD, Minn. — All season long, Saint Mary's University women's basketball coach Kim Fierke has preached that, if the Cardinals are going to make a run at the top teams in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, they were going to have to win the games they were supposed to win, and hopefully come up with a few surprises against the MIAC's elite teams.

Heading into Saturday's game against Concordia, the Cardinals had done just that.

Not only had they defeated all the teams they were supposed to beat — including the Cobbers, 69-58, two weeks ago — but the Cardinals had also knocked off one of the league's best with a one-point, 64-63 win over Carleton on Wednesday.

Unfortunately, someone forgot to tell the Cobbers that their rematch with SMU was supposed to turn out the same way the first meeting did, as Concordia used a 45-point second-half to beat the Cardinals 76-52, snapping SMU's three-game winning streak.

The Cardinals trailed by nine, 31-22, at the half, thanks in part to a 31 percent effort from the field over the game's first 20 minutes. SMU hit 12 of its 28 field goals in the second half (43 percent), but the Cardinals sank just 4 of 11 free throws and were outscored 45-30 in losing for just the third time in 10 MIAC games.

Amy Burns (Winona, Minn.) paced the Cardinals with 17 points, while Jamie Rattunde (Rollingstone, Minn.) added 11.

Mandy Berggren led three Cobbers in double figures with a game-high 25 points. She also pulled down 11 rebounds en route to the double-double. Mandy Pearson chipped in 19 points and Kasey Bostow tallied 13 for Concordia (5-5 MIAC, 5-8 overall).