Game Summary

WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University women's basketball team put together its most impressive offense performance of the season Saturday, erupting for 73 points in a 73-59 win over Augsburg.

Two days later, SMU's offense went from best to worst, managing just 14 first-half points and 42 points for the game, as Bethel took advantage of the Cardinals' frigid shooting to roll to a 53-42 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory at the SMU Gym.

The Cardinals, who snapped their season-high five-game losing streak with Saturday's win over the Auggies — and were looking for their first two-game winning streak of the season — could not get anything to fall in the first half, making just 6 of 33 field goal attempts (18 percent).

That was the bad news.

The good news was, Bethel wasn't a whole lot better in the game's opening 20 minutes, managing just seven field goals and a pair of free throws to take a 17-14 advantage into the locker room at the half.

SMU scored seven of the first 10 points of the second half to take a 21-20 advantage, and the two teams took turns holding a one-point lead, before the Royals went on a 20-6 run to take a 44-31 lead with 5:38 remaining. The Cardinals got back to within nine on a three-pointer by Kelly Tanke (La Crosse, Wis.), but that was as close as they would get in falling to 2-8 in the MIAC and 4-9 overall.

Jessica Weisbrod (Rollingstone, Minn.) had her bid for a third straight double-double fall one point short, as the junior finished with nine points and 10 rebounds. Tanke also netted nine points for SMU, while Annegret Nautsch netted a game-high 14 points and added 11 rebounds and seven blocks for the Royals.