Game Summary

WINONA, Minn. – It's been 18 years since the Saint Mary's University women's basketball team has beaten St. Thomas.

Saturday afternoon, the Cardinals came oh, so close to finally putting an end to that 36-game streak.

Oh, so close.

After falling behind by as many as 14 points in the second half, the Cardinals closed to within one point with three seconds remaining in regulation — only to have the Tommies hit three straight free throws in the final seconds to ice a 76-72 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference win.

"We just ran out of time," said SMU coach Dan Messmann, whose team scored a season-high 50 points in the second half. "If we would have had another 30 seconds, there's no doubt in my mind we would have come out on top."

Unfortunately for Messmann, a college basketball game is 40 minutes long — no more.

"The effort was there, no question about that," said Messmann, whose team trailed by 14 at the half, 36-22. "We've been playing very well lately, and to come back in the second half like that was good to see — we just ran out of time."

Jamie Rattunde (Rollingstone, Minn.), who scored a game-high 19 points, hit a layup with three seconds remaining to cut the Tommies' lead to one, 73-72, but that was as close as the Cardinals would get.

"We didn't play too well (in the first half), but we really came on strong in the second," said Messmann, whose team had hits two-game winning streak snapped, but has won five of its last seven games. "If we are going to play with the best teams in the conference, we need to play (like we did in the second half), for the entire game."