NORTHFIELD, Minn. — If it's any consolation, the Saint Mary's University women's basketball team found themselves with plenty of company following the Cardinals' 63-53 loss to Carleton Wednesday evening.

Only one team (St. Catherine) has shot better than 40 percent from the field in Carleton's first 11 games. In fact, the Cardinals, who shot 35.5 percent from the field in dropping their fifth straight game, were the 27th team in the Knights' last 30 games to shoot less than 40 percent.

In other words, the Knights' defense is good — very good.

And SMU learned that first-hand Wednesday.

"Overall, we were pretty pleased with our performance on both ends of the court," said SMU coach Shawn Stimmel. "There were a few stretches where we let down a bit and let (Carleton) get on a few runs that really hurt us.

"(The Knights') defense is very good — they are so tall and long that it makes it tough to generate any offense from the post."

The Cardinals fell behind early, staring at a 10-2 hole before the game was even four minutes old. But SMU, which saw that deficit climb to as many as 13 points, but the gap to seven, 32-25, at the half.

Fueled by the stellar performance of Stephanie Ayers (Deer River, Minn.), who followed up a career-best, 12-point performance vs. Gustavus last Saturday with 16 points — including 13 in the second half — the Cardinals knocked down 12 of their 28 second-half shots, but could never cut into the Knights' lead, as Carleton outscored SMU 31-28 over the final 20 minutes to seal the win.

Along with Ayers' career-best effort, the Cardinals also got their first double-double of the season, as Jessica Weisbrod (Rollingstone, Minn.) scored 12 points and pulled down a game- and career-high 15 rebounds in the losing effort.

Hannah Oken-Berg scored a game-high 20 points and Anna Biewen chipped in 12 points for the Knights, who have now won 11 straight vs. the Cardinals.

"We got some very good (offensive) performances from Jess and Steph — Jess dominated the offensive boards (where she pulled down 10 of her 15 rebounds), and Steph did a nice job of knocking down some shots in the second half," said Stimmel. "That's what we are going to need if we are going to continue to turn this thing around — people stepping up like those two did."