Game Summary

WINONA, Minn. — When Alyse Coates (West St. Paul, Minn.) knocked down a jumper at the buzzer, the Saint Mary's University women's basketball team found itself within one point of league-leading St. Benedict heading into the locker room at the half.

And when Calla Swenson (Blooming Prairie, Minn.) buried a shot 1:17 into the second half, the Cardinals boasted a one-point, 24-23 advantage.

But when Ellie Boone responded with a bucket of her own seconds later, SMU coach Dan Messmann had a uneasy feeling in his stomach. He feared what might happen — and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

The Blazers turned Messmann's fears into reality, rattling off 11 straight points and CSB never looked back, outscoring SMU 40-11 in the second half en route to a 63-33 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory at the SMU Gym.

"I don't know what to say — this is becoming a trend that we can't seem to shake," said Messmann, whose team gave up the first 17 points of the second half in a 70-58 loss to Gustavus in their last game on Wednesday. "We have the same problem in drills — we'll take a water break and when we come back, we can't seem to refocus. And that's carrying over to the games.

"We've got to find a way to play for 40 minutes."

The Cardinals turned in one of their better halves in the opening 20 minutes, shooting 40 percent from the field, while holding the high-scoring Blazers to just eight field goals and 23 points.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, the game of basketball is 40 minutes long, not 20.

Over the game's final 20 minutes, SMU managed just four field goals — Swenson's to open the half, a layup by Jessica Weisbrod (Rollingstone, Minn.) at the 15:01 mark, a 3-pointer by Sarah Murphy (Belle Plaine, Minn.) two minutes later, and a jumper by Danielle Dehning (Spring Grove, Minn.) at the 9:07 mark — and failed to score from the field in the game's final nine minutes.

"I don't know what it is — I thought we played awesome in the first half, and then just couldn't do anything right in the second," said Messmann. "We knew (St. Benedict) was going to start hitting some shots, we just weren't able to answer them.

"We've got to starting come up with answers, it's that simple."