Game Summary vs. UW-RF / GameDay Online

RIVER FALLS, Wis. — Defensively, the Saint Mary's University women's basketball team took a giant step forward Tuesday evening.

After giving up 91 points in their season-opening 91-45 loss to NCAA Division III Winona State last Saturday, the Cardinals held UW-River Falls to just 67 points in their nonconference showdown.

While the SMU improved on the defensive ends by leaps and bounds, the Cardinal offense couldn't get out of neutral, managing just 49 points in falling 67-49.

“Defensively, I was very happy with the way we played,” said SMU coach Mandy Pearson. “Actually, the effort overall was impressive — we went out and played hard the entire game.

“We just couldn't knock down the shots when we needed to.”

For the second straight game, the Cardinals' performance was a tale of two halves, as SMU struggled to just 16 first-half points — after netting 20 in last Saturday's loss to Winona State — before coming to life over the game's final 20 minutes.

“We've dug ourselves a pretty deep hole after the first half in both of our games thus far,” said Pearson, whose team is now off until Wednesday, when they open Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play at Macalester. “We played much better offensively in the second half, but every time we closed the gap, (River Falls) would answer with a couple of clutch buckets.”

Freshman Michelle Carne (Escanaba, Mich.) tossed in a career-best 15 points to lead the Cardinals' offense, which shot 39 percent from the field, but struggled from the free-throw line, hitting just 3 of 7 from the charity stripe. Cherie Kulig (Independence, Wis.) recorded her second straight double-figure performance, tossing in 11-points for SMU, while Tess Lardie tossed in a game-high 18 points to lead three Falcons in double figures.

“It's disappointing to lose,” admitted Pearson. “But I was really happy with the effort — we're getting there.”