Game Summary

WINONA, Minn. — Dan Messmann knew that with the young lineup that he was putting on the floor, there were going to be some growing pains for his Saint Mary's University women's basketball team.

And Wednesday evening was one of those painful moments.

The Cardinals managed just 17 second-half points — hitting just 6 of 22 shots — as St. Catherine used an early 8-0 second half run to take the lead for good and pull away with a 64-47 victory in the teams' Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener at the SMU Gym.

"We knew this was going to take some time, that we were going to go through some growing pains," said Messmann, whose team was coming off a 1-1 showing at the Rockford Tip-Off Classic on Nov. 18-19. "There were times that we looked very good out there tonight, and then there were other times … ."

The second half was one of those "other" times.

Fueled by that early 8-0 run, the Wildcats grabbed a 42-34 lead and never looked back, building their lead to as many as 19 on three separate occasions over the game's final 10 minutes.

"It was our youthfulness that put us up by 10 in the first half, and it was our youthfulness that struggled in the second half," said Messmann, who got a game-high 14 points from Danielle Dehning (Spring Grove, Minn.) and 13 points and six rebounds from Jessica Weisbrod (Rollingstone, Minn.). "We came out and play a little timid to start the second half and (St. Catherine) really took advantage of that.

"We didn't play with the same aggressiveness in the second half, and that's something we're going to need to improve on," continued Messmann. "We're not going to panic just because we're 1-2 — it's a long season and we'll keep working to improve every day.

"We're going to hit some bumps in the road early in the season, but in the long run, we're going to be just fine."