vs.
61		73

Game Summary / GameDay Online

WINONA, Minn. — The search continues for Mandy Pearson and the Saint Mary's University women's basketball team.

The road-weary Cardinals, who were playing their third straight road game after opening the season with a 74-59 loss at home against UW-River Falls, got 22 points and 13 rebounds from Jess Weisbrod (Rollingstone, Minn.), but it was not enough, as Saint Benedict hung on for  a 73-61 victory — handing SMU its fourth straight loss.

"I thought, physically, we played pretty well," said SMU head coach Mandy Pearson, who is still looking for her first collegiate coaching win. "Mentally, we are still struggling a bit. We are still making too many mistakes that we shouldn't be making. We need to do a better  job of taking care of the basketball. Against a team like (Saint Benedict), you can't afford to turn the ball over 22 times."

Weisbrod, who scored a season-high 21 points and added seven rebounds in Wednesday's 78-62 conference-opening loss to St. Thomas, collected her first double-double of the season, hitting 9 of 18 field goals and adding a 4-for-5 performance from the free-throw line. Nicholle Hanson (Owatonna, Minn.) chipped in a season-high 17 points — knocking down four of SMU's six 3-pointers — while Jess Miller (Carver, Minn.) added 12 points.

"It was good to see us play a little better on the offensive end," said Pearson. "We did a much better job of getting the ball inside to Jess, and when we do that, it opens up a lot of opportunities. Jess did a nice job of scoring, but she also made good decisions on when to kick it out, and when she did that, Nicholle was knocking them down from the outside.

"We're getting better every day, and that's what we want to see right now," said Pearson, whose team is back on the road Monday, traveling to Macalester for a 5:45 p.m contest. "We just have to keep working."