Game Summary
NORTHFIELD, Minn. — There's a reason Carleton College has won three straight Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference regular-season championships — not to mention the last four MIAC playoff titles.
They're good — very good.
And, for the third time this season, the Saint Mary's University women's basketball team learned that firsthand Wednesday evening.
The Cardinals saw their season come to a screeching half at the hands of the Knights as Carleton outscored SMU 42-26 in the second half en route to a 67-51 victory in the semifinals of the MIAC playoffs.
"It's a tough way to end the season, because I don't think we played our best game," said SMU coach Dan Messmann, whose team ended its season with an 18-8 overall record — the most wins by an SMU team since the Cardinals went 21-3 and placed third in the NCAA regional tournament in 1985-86. "We had our opportunities, and we had our chances — but in a game like this, you've got to make shots, and tonight, we didn't make shots."
As was the case in the first two meetings against the Knights — in which the Cardinals suffered through their two worst offensive performances of the season — SMU again struggled from the field, especially in the first half, where SMU made just 11 of 27 field goal attempts.
Yet, despite missing four of their first five field goal attempts, the Cardinals settled down, rallied from seven points down, 25-18 late in the first half and headed into the locker room tied with the Knights, 25-25.
"We should have been ahead (at the half)," said Messmann. "We missed a number of great chances underneath, and against a team like (Carleton), you can't do that."
The second half opened in similar fashion to the first, as the Cardinals missed their first four shots before Jamie Rattunde (Rollingstone, Minn.) got SMU on the board. Jess Weisbrod (Rollingstone, Minn.) and Rattunde would each score baskets for SMU over the next two minutes to keep the Cardinals within three, 34, 31, but that was as close as they would get, as Carleton used a 15-6 to take a 49-37 advantage with 7:22 left in regulation. SMU got as close as nine, 55-46 on another Rattunde basket, but Carleton again had an answer, scoring 12 of the final 17 points to ice its eighth straight win over the Cardinals.
"Everyone's disappointed — they worked so hard to get to this point," said Messmann, whose team accomplished a pair of firsts this season, as SMU earned its first-ever MIAC home playoff game — a game win which the Cardinals notched their first-ever MIAC playoff win when they dropped Gustavus 77-67 Monday evening. "We took another step forward this year, and that's something this group can be proud of.
"It always hurts when you lose like this, but this team accomplished so much, and, hopefully when the pain goes away, they'll realize just how great a season they had."
