WINONA, Minn. — After a first half in which the Saint Mary's University women's basketball team could not find a way to cool off Carleton, SMU coach
Mandy Pearson turned loose her secret weapon — freshman sharp-shooter
Jessica Thone (Woodbury, Minn.).
After Thone's second-half performance Monday, however, there won't be much secret about Pearson's long-range bomber.
Thone drained five, second-half 3-pointers and nearly single-handily carried the Cardinals back from a 15-point first-half deficit — scoring 22 points over the game's final 20 minutes to help SMU force overtime in its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference contest against the Knights.
In the overtime, however, Carleton was perfect from the free throw line, and Thone and the Cardinals could not find their range, as the Knights used a 14-for-14 effort from the charity stripe to outscore SMU 17-7 in OT and escape with an 80-70 victory at the SMU Gym.
“I thought we played extremely well in the second half — Jess Thone came out (after the halftime intermission) and was determined to get us back in the game,” said Pearson. “We came out pretty flat in the first half, and Carleton took advantage. We did a much better job in the second half — unfortunately, that momentum didn't carry over into the overtime.”
The Cardinals, who trailed 37-22 at the break, clawed their way back to take their first lead of the game, 57-55, on the second of back-to-back 3-pointers from Thone with 2:39 remaining in regulation.
Cheri Kulig (Independence, Wis.) knocked down a pair of free throws to push the Cardinal lead to 63-59, but Carleton answered with a basket by Annie Eckoff with 8.8 seconds on the clock.
The Knights forced SMU to turn the ball over on the ensuing in-bounds play and Megan Mileusnic drained two free throws to force overtime.
In the extra session, the Knights scored six of the first seven points to take a 69-64 advantage, but
Renee Pecarina (Winona, Minn.) nailed a 3-pointer to cut the Knights' lead to two, 69-67. A 3-pointer and four free throws expanded Carleton's lead to 76-67 and the Knights never looked back.
“It's disappointing to lose a game like that, because we fought so hard to get back in the game,” said Pearson, whose team is back in action Wednesday, playing host to Hamline in a 7:30 p.m. contest at the SMU Gym. “It was an excellent effort — for 20 minutes. We still have to find a way to play that way for the entire game.”
