Game Summary

WINONA, Minn. — There was a time in the not-too-distant past when even the name "St. Thomas" would make the Saint Mary's University women's basketball team cringe.

A 38-game losing streak to the mighty Tommies will do that to a person.

Saturday afternoon at the SMU Gym, it was the Tommies who were doing the cringing, as the Cardinals, led by Ashley Luehmann's (Lewiston, Minn.) game-high 20 points, cruised to a 72-58 victory.

Their third straight victory over the Tommies.

My, how times have changed.

"It's like night and day," said SMU coach Dan Messmann of the SMU team that took the floor Saturday, and the one that was beaten by the Tommies 74-59 two years ago to extended the streak to 38. "After what we did to them last year, we came into this game confident — we knew we were the better team, and we were determined to prove it.

"It's always an extra big game when we play St. Thomas," continued Messmann. "Everyone was pretty jacked-up to play today — not just because it was a conference game, but because it was a conference game against St. Thomas."

And, once SMU got its early game emotions in check, the Cardinals quickly proved that they were no longer intimidated by the St. Thomas mystique.

Down by six, 13-7, six minutes into the game, SMU went on a 12-5 run to take the lead for good, 19-18 midway through the opening half. The Cardinals built the lead to as many as 11 — 37-26 on a three-pointer by Luehmann — before settling for a seven-point, 37-30 halftime advantage.

It was more of the same in the second half as the Cardinals padded their lead to 16, 65-49 on a basket by Angie Arrington (Spring Grove, Minn.) with seven minutes remaining. The Tommies made one final push, pulling to within nine, 67-58, but the Cardinals were not rattled, knocking down five of six free throws down the stretch to ice the win.

Luehmann led the way for the Cardinals, scoring a game-high 20 points, while Megan Moran (Burlington, Wis.) chipped in 14 and Arrington tallied 11. Molly Miller netted 16 points and Erica Opdahl and Melissa Gotchnik each added 14 in the losing effort for St. Thomas.

"This is a big win, no question about it," said Messmann, whose team has now won five of six since the Christmas break to improve to 6-3 in the MIAC and 10-3 overall. "We've got ourselves on a nice roll right now, hopefully we can keep it going."