Game Summary
WINONA, Minn. — For the majority of Saturday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game, it was tough to tell which was the conference playoff-bound team and which was the team struggling to win for just the seventh time in 24 games.
Unfortunately for the Saint Mary's University women's basketball team, in the end, the Cardinals' bid for a role-reversal fell just short, as Concordia held off a late SMU charge to post a 70-64 victory at the SMU Gym.
Trailing by as many as 18 points in the first half, the Cardinals managed to cut the deficit to 13, 40-27 by halftime — and that was just the tip of the SMU comeback iceberg.
"I've been saying for a while that, when we play the way we are capable, we can play with just about anyone — and today was a perfect example of that," said SMU coach Shawn Stimmel. "Now, if we play that way the first 23 minutes as well, it might have been a different end result."
The Cardinals gave up the first six points of the second half to fall behind 49-27, but then caught fire, making it an eight-point game, 61-53, with 6:16 remaining in regulation.
And the Cardinals weren't finished.
Concordia pushed its lead back to double-figures, 68-55, before SMU really made things interesting, scoring nine straight points to cut the gap to four, 68-64 with 54 seconds on the clock.
That, however, was where the Cardinals' upset bid would end, as SMU missed one field goal attempt and turned the ball over on another possession in the game's final minute in dropping its second straight game.
Nichole Hanson (Owatonna, Minn.) led the way for the Cardinals, scoring a career-high 15 points, while Jessica Weisbrod (Rollingstone, Minn.) chipped in 14 points and eight rebounds, and Kelly Tanke (La Crosse, Wis.) netted 10 points. Melanie Hageman tossed in a game-high 18 points to lead the way for the Cobbers, who closed out the season tied with Carleton for third place in the MIAC standings.
"I think this last stretch, we've been able to win a couple of games and start to build a little confidence — and that can only help us heading into next year," said Stimmel, who loses two seniors — Jacqui Ripoli (Belvidere, Ill.) and Dusty Benham (Deer River, Minn.) — and returns his top two scorers in Weisbrod (12.7 ppg) and Tanke (10.2 ppg). "I thought throughout the season we did some pretty good things, we just were as consistent as we needed to be.
"Part of that is inexperience, and, hopefully, the experience this team did get this year will make them that much better when we take to the floor next season.
