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WINONA, Minn. — Saturday's regular-season finale was one of those games that cause coaches like Saint Mary's University women's basketball coach Mandy Pearson to lose sleep.

First, there was the fear of an emotional letdown following the Cardinals' thrilling 70-62 victory over Saint Benedict Wednesday that kept SMU just one game back on league-leading Concordia in the chase for the MIAC regular-season title.

And, if that wasn't enough to make Pearson toss and turn, the fear of a mental letdown, should the Cardinals' focus be on next week's conference tournament — and the opening-round home game — rather than on Saturday's task at hand.

It took 12 minutes, but the Cardinals quickly put Pearson's fears to rest, as SMU rode a 22-10 run to end the first half and held off a late Auggie rally to post a 68-64 victory.

With the win, coupled with Concordia's win over Gustavus, St. Thomas' rout of St. Catherine and Hamline's overtime victory over Carleton, the Cardinals will enter next week's MIAC tournament as the No. 3 seed.

Concordia (20-5, 19-3 MIAC) had already locked up a share of the MIAC regular season championship and the No. 1 seed, and the Cobbers put the finishing touches on their outright conference title with a 65-49 home win over Gustavus (15-10, 14-8 MIAC) Saturday afternoon. This is Concordia's sixth MIAC women's basketball title, and first since 1989-90, which ended a stretch of four championships in five seasons.

Carleton took Hamline (14-11, 14-8 MIAC) to overtime, but the Pipers prevailed in the extra period, 66-60, to jump into a tie with the Gusties for fifth at 14-8. Thanks to tiebreaker criteria, Hamline enters the postseason as the No. 5 seed, and Gustavus is seeded sixth. The two split their regular season series and were both a combined 2-6 against the top four teams, but Hamline wins the tiebreaker by virtue of its 1-1 record vs. conference champ Concordia, while the Gusties were swept by the Cobbers.

The No. 2 and 3 seeds were also secured when St. Thomas and Saint Mary's both won on Saturday. The Tommies took the No. 2 seed — and the first-round bye — thanks to tiebreaker criteria. The two split their regular-season series, but UST was 1-1 vs. Concordia, while the Cardinals were 0-2. Saint Benedict (19-6, 17-5 MIAC) was already locked in as the No. 4 seed because they would have come up short in tiebreaker scenarios with St. Thomas and Saint Mary's.

The MIAC post-season tournament will open Tuesday with a pair of first-round games, as Concordia and St. Thomas enjoy a bye into the semifinals. No. 6 Gustavus will head to Saint Mary's Tuesday for one of the quarterfinal matchups, while No.4 Saint Benedict will host No. 5 Hamline in the other. The winners will advance to Thursday's semifinals, where the lowest-remaining seed will travel to Moorhead to face the Cobbers, and the second-lowest remaining seed will face the Tommies in St. Paul. All quarterfinal and semifinal games will tip off at 7:30 p.m.

The championship game will be held, Saturday, Feb. 23, on the home court of the highest remaining seed. That game is scheduled to tip off at 3 p.m. The winner of the 2013 MIAC Women's Basketball Playoffs will receive the conference's automatic bid to the 2013 NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Tournament.

And while the Cardinals had already punched their ticket to the MIAC dance, they will be heading in with a good head of steam, having won four straight — thanks to Saturday's win over Augbsurg.

The Cardinals started slow, hitting just  one of their first 10 field goal attempts, but once they got rolling, there was no stopping them. Led by Jamie Stefely (Lisle, Ill.), SMU knocked down 16 of their final 22 attempts from the field en route to the 12-point halftime advantage.

SMU continued to have the upper hand in the second half, building its lead to as many as 20, 60-40, with 7:32 remaining. Augsburg mad one final charge as the Cardinals, pulling to within five, 66-61, on three free throws by Jill Tichy with three minutes remaining in regulation. The Cardinals pushed the lead to 68-62, and a last-second field Anne Skriba made it a four-point, 68-64 final.

Stefely had the hot hand all afternoon, scoring a team-high 20 points, while adding 10 rebounds for her fifth double-double of the season. It was the second straight game the Cardinals boasted a player with 20 points, as Jessica Thone (Woodbury, Minn.) tossed in 20 against Saint Benedict last Wednesday.

Thone chipped in 12 points against the Auggies, while Bridget Pethke (Larsen, Wis.) added 10 for the Cardinals, who shot 50 percent from the field (27-for-61) and added an 11-for-14 effort from the free throw line.

Skirba, meanwhile, netted a game-high 22 points and Tichy finished with 15 for the Auggies.