Game Summary

ST. PAUL, Minn. — If Kim Fierke and the Saint Mary's University women's basketball team didn't believe in Murphy's Law — you know, "whatever can go wrong, will — before, they certainly do now.

In fact, after Wednesday's game against Macalester, Fierke might want to meet this Murphy guy and punch him right in the nose.

How bad was it?

• The Cardinals shot just 16 percent in the first half — missing their first 10 shots from the field and their first two free throws.

• Macalester scored the game's first 13 points before Amy Burns (Winona, Minn.) finally drained a 3-pointer with 13:02 remaining in the first half.

• SMU scored just 20 first-half points and trailed by 11, 31-20, at the intermission.

• The Cardinals turned the ball over 24 times and pulled down just seven offensive rebounds.

• Despite scoring 36 second-half points, the Cardinals dropped a 63-56 decision to the Scots — a team SMU beat by 24, 73-49, the first time the two teams met.

Jaimie Lee (Eden Prairie, Minn.) scored a game-high 18 points in the losing effort for SMU (11-10 MIAC, 13-11 overall), which dropped its second straight. Alissa Erichsen (Spring Valley, Minn.) chipped in 15 points for the Cardinals, while Burns finished with 12.

Yet, despite what appeared to be a gigantic dark cloud hovering over the Cardinals, the Cardinals did find a very important silver lining Wednesday — they locked up a spot in the six-team MIAC post-season tournament.

With one game remaining in the conference season, the Cardinals are currently tied with St. Olaf for the fifth and sixth playoff spots, with Concordia one game back at 10-11. No matter what happens Saturday in their season-finale against league-leading St. Benedict, the worst SMU can do is finish sixth, because the Cardinals hold the second tie-breaker — overall record against teams above the tied teams in the conference standings — over both St. Olaf and Concordia.