Box Score  | GameDay Preview

NORTHFIELD, Minn. — For the second time in as many meetings, the Saint Mary's University and Carleton women's basketball team's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game was decided by one point.

And, fortunately for SMU, it was the Cardinals who owned the additional point, as the Cardinals scored the game's final five points — a 3-pointer by Emily DeWitt (Lino Lakes, Minn.) and a game-winning layup by Jamie Stefely (Lisle, Ill.) with eight seconds remaining — en route to a 61-60 victory over the Knights Wednesday evening.

The Cardinals jumped out to a 16-8 lead through the game's first seven minutes and went into the locker room at the break boasting a three-point, 32-29, halftime advantage.

SMU would lead by as many as seven early in the second half — the final time 48-41 on a 3-pointer by Jessica Thone (Woodbury, Minn.) with 13:07 remaining in regulation. Carleton scored eight unanswered points to grab a 49-48 advantage, and, over the next seven minutes, the game would be tied a ninth and 10th time, and neither team would lead by more than four.

With Carleton boating a four-point, 60-56 lead and time running out, the Cardinals came through in the clutch, as DeWitt drained her xxth 3-pointer of the game, and, after a Carleton missed free throw, SMU completed the late-game rally on Stefely's layup with eight seconds remaining.

Stefely finished with a game-high 16 points, while Thone chipped in 11 points and DeWitt added nine. As a team, SMU shot 41 percent from the field (24-for-58), while knocking down eight 3-pointers.

Jenny Ramey led a trio of Knights in double figures, scoring 13 points, with Skylar Tsutsui and Akemi Arzouman each adding 11.

SMU (8-4 MIAC, 8-7 overall), which has now won five straight — the Cardinals' longest winning streak since opening the 2004-2005 season with five consecutive victories — go for six in a row on Saturday, hosting red-hot St. Thomas in a 1 p.m. conference game at the SMU Gym.