Game Summary / GameDay Preview

ST. PAUL, Minn. — For the Saint Mary's University and Macalester women's basketball teams, the first half has proven to be the deciding factor this season.

In their first four games, the Cardinals had outscored their opponents 126-90 in the game's opening 20 minutes, while Macalester had been outscored 137-88.

Saturday afternoon, however, the two teams decided to do a little first-half role reversal, as Macalester had the upper hand in the opening 20 minutes, taking a 36-33 advantage into the locker room at halftime.

The Cardinals regrouped in the second half, whittling away at the Scots' lead, before finally taking just their second lead of the game, 55-53, with 7:29 remaining — and SMU never looked back in beating Macalester 66-60.

With the win, the Cardinals improve to 2-0 in the MIAC — marking the first time they have started 2-0 since the 2004-2005 season, when SMU opened conference play with three straight victories.

"We started out really slow in the first half," said SMU coach Mandy Pearson. "I was glad to see us pick things up in the second half. It was one of those games where we just seemed to keep getting better and better as the game went on."

The Cardinals, who found themselves staring at a 16-5 deficit right out of the gate, and were down by 10, 20-10, midway through the first half, took their first — and only — lead of the first half, 31-30, on a layup by Jess Miller (Carver, Minn.) with two minutes remaining.

The Scots, however, responded by outscoring SMU 6-2 down the stretch en route to the three-point lead at the break.

Macalester held the Cardinals at bay early in the second half, but SMU continued to close the gap, finally taking the lead for good on a basket by Jamie Stefely (Lisle, Ill.) with 7:29 remaining. The Cardinals would outscore the Scots 11-7 the rest of the way to seal the win.

"Jamie Stefely had a great game for us today," praised Pearson. "She made some big baskets and some huge rebounds when we needed them. It was good to see us come back the way we did in the second half."

Cherie Kulig (Independence, Wis.) scored a game-high 14 points for the Cardinals, going 3-for-9 from the field and 8-for-10 from the free-throw line. Jessica Thone (Woodbury, Minn.) and Stefely each notched their first double-doubles of the season for SMU, with Thone scoring 13 points and pulling down 10 rebounds, while Stefely added 10 points and 10 boards. Eighteen of the duo's 20 rebounds came on the defensive end.

Shannon Rene and Taylor Pike led the scoring for Macalester, with Rene netting 13 points, while Pike added 10.

The Cardinals (2-0 MIAC, 4-1 overall) are back in action on Monday, traveling to Bethel for a 7:30 p.m. conference contest against the Royals.