Game Summary

WINONA, Minn. — For Saint Mary's University women's basketball coach Dan Messmann, Saturday's nonconference game against Coe was a chance for his team to shake off the rust that had accumulated from a two-week break.

Unfortunately for the Kohawks, there wasn't any rust in the Cardinals' game.

SMU scored 18 of the game's first 20 points and held Coe to just 15 first-half points en route to a convincing 74-56 win at the SMU Gym.

"It was important for us to come back from break and get a game under our belt before we jump back into the conference season," said Messmann, whose team plays host to Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference foes Bethel (Monday), Gustavus (Wednesday) and St. Benedict (Saturday) in the next seven days. "This was a good chance for us to shake out the rust a bit and get back to work."

The Cardinals' shooting touch certainly hadn't tarnished any since their last game — a 47-46 win over Martin Luther on Dec. 12. SMU knocked down eight of its first 11 field goal attempts — and held Coe to just a pair of free throws — to take an 18-2 advantage with 12:37 remaining in the opening half. The Cardinals would push the lead to as many as 27 (33-6), before Coe used a late 9-3 run to make it a 36-15 SMU lead at the half.

"It was great to see us get out of the gates fast," said Messmann, who got a game-high 20 points from Ashley Luehmann (Lewiston, Minn.) — one of five SMU players scoring in double figures. "We've been emphasizing the importance of playing with a lot of enthusiasm and intensity, but when you get up by that many, it's tough to keep that going.

"I thought our posts did a nice job of establishing themselves early, and that really opened things up and gave our guards some nice looks," continued Messmann. "This was a good win for us – hopefully we can carry it over into next week."