Game Summary

ROCKFORD, Ill. — Saint Mary's University women's basketball coach Dan Messmann knew that the graduation of Jamie Rattunde and Angie Arrington — two of his top three scorers from a year ago — would make things difficult for his Cardinal women's basketball team.

But he didn't think it would be this difficult.

The Cardinals made just 5 of 29 first-half field goals — and struggled to just 12 first-half points — and never recovered as UW-La Crosse rolled to a 63-38 win over SMU in the opening round of the Rockford Tip-Off Classic Friday evening.

"It was a tough start," understated Messmann, whose team shot just 31 percent from the field — including just 2 of 15 (13 percent) from behind the 3-point line. "I think we had some first-game jitters tonight. We've got a lot of young people in the lineup, and it showed.

"We struggled offensively early in the game and just never seemed to get things on track," said Messmann, who watched as UW-L went on a 17-3 run to end the first half in grabbing a commanding 35-12 lead at the break. "We played a little better in the second half, but we had dug ourselves such a deep hole (in the first half), it was just too much."

Ashley Luehmann (Lewiston, Minn.) and Jess Weisbrod (Rollingstone, Minn.) led the way for SMU, accounting for 22 of SMU's 38 points as the duo each finished with 11 points. Shawna Koss netted a game-high 15 points in the winning effort for UW-L.

"It wasn't quite the start we were hoping for," said Messmann, whose Cardinals will face Milwaukee School of Engineering — an 80-64 loser to host Rockford — in Saturday's consolation game. "Hopefully we can get off to a little better start (Saturday)."