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WINONA, Minn. — If Mandy Pearson were to give her Saint Mary's University women's basketball team a letter grade for their season-opening performance against UW-River Falls Friday evening, she would most certainly give her Cardinals an 'A' for effort.

And a 'C" for execution.

The Cardinals had their moments against the Falcons, racing out to leads as big as 11 — 17-6 and 19-8 — only to have the Falcons use a 12-1 run to take their first lead, 20-19, and never look back in handing SMU a 74-59 nonconference setback at the SMU Gym.

"It's always disappointing to lose, but I thought we did some good things out there," said Pearson, who was making her collegiate coaching debut behind the Cardinals' bench. "It was a little odd not being out on the floor — there were times I wanted to go out there and make some things happen for us."

The Cardinals could have used Pearson's help against the Falcons' full-court pressure, which forced SMU to turn the ball over 30 times.

"We knew coming in that they were going to pressure us the whole game, and I thought we did a nice job of handling it early on," said Pearson. "But I think that pressure took its toll on us, and once we got tired, we started making too many mental mistakes — we weren't quite as sharp mentally as we need to be."

Kelly Tanke (La Crosse, Wis.), led the way for the Cardinals, scoring a team-high 17 points, as the senior hit 4 of her 7 field goal attempts and knocked down 7 of 9 free throws. Jess Miller (Carver, Minn.) and Jess Weisbrod (Rollingstone, Minn.) also finished in double figures for SMU, scoring 13 and 12 points, respectively.

"For a first game, I thought we did all right," said Pearson, whose team returns action Tuesday, traveling to Winona State for a 7 p.m. nonconference game. "We've got a lot of things we need to work on, but this was an OK start."