WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University women's basketball team kicks off MIAC Tournament play on Tuesday, as the Cardinals host Gustavus in a 7:30 p.m. contest at the SMU Gym.
The MIAC Tournament Schedule:
Tuesday, February 19, 2013 | 7:30 p.m.
#6 Gustavus (14-8 MIAC, 15-10) at #3 Saint Mary's (18-4 MIAC, 21-4)
#5 Hamline (14-8 MIAC, 14-11) at #4 St. Benedict (17-5 MIAC, 19-6)
Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013 | 7:30 p.m.
Lowest-remaining seed at #1 Concordia (19-3 MIAC, 20-5)
Second-lowest remaining seed at #2 St. Thomas (18-4, 20-5)
Saturday, Feb. 21, 2013 | 3 p.m.
Semifinal winners at top seed
*Playoff champion earns the MIAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament
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Last Action:
The Cardinals got 20 points and 10 rebounds from Jamie Stefely (Lisle, Ill.), as SMU closed out regular-season play with a 68-64 conference win over Augsburg Saturday at the SMU Gym. … Gustavus, meanwhile, could not overcome an early deficit in a 65-49 loss to regular-season champion Concordia at Memorial Auditorium in Moorhead, Minn., on Saturday
How They Got Here:
The Cardinals finished 18-4 in conference play and tied with St. Thomas for second in the regular-season standings, one game behind regular-season champion Concordia. The Tommies took the No. 2 seed — and the first-round bye — thanks to the second tiebreaker criteria. The two teams split their regular-season series, but UST was 1-1 vs. Concordia, while the Cardinals were 0-2. … Gustavus, meanwhile, finished tied for fifth in conference play at 14-8. Again, thanks to the second 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.
SMU vs. Gustavus — Earlier This Year:
January 2, 2013: SMU boasted three players in double figures in its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference showdown with Gustavus. Unfortunately for the Cardinals, the Gusties answered with five double-figure scorers, as GAC outlasted SMU 86-66 in a battle of conference heavyweights at Gus Young Court in St. Peter, Minn.
January 30, 2013: The Cardinals rallied from a two-point, 29-27 halftime deficit, scoring the first five points of the second half — then using a late, 8-0 run to take the lead for good — en route to a 65-58 victory at the SMU Gym.
SMU vs. Gustavus — In The MIAC Tourmament:
Gustavus and Saint Mary's have met twice in the MIAC Playoffs, with both meetings coming in the quarterfinal round.
February 18, 2002: With four-point and five-point losses in their first two meetings, SMU coach Kim Fierke had no reason to expect anything less when her Cardinals squared off against Gustavus in the opening round of the MIAC post-season tournament. Unfortunately for the Cardinals, their third meeting with the Gusties was anything but World War III. Fueled by a 12-2 run to start the game, Gustavus raced out to a 44-29 halftime lead and never looked back en route to a 78-57 victory in St. Peter, Minn.
February 21, 2005: Led by Jamie Rattunde (Rollingstone, Minn.) and Ashley Luehmann (Lewiston, Minn.), the Cardinals snapped a four-game MIAC playoff slide, racing to a 13-point halftime advantage, then hanging on down the stretch to post a 77-67 victory over the Gusties at the SMU Gym.
Scouting The Saint Mary's Cardinals:
2012-13 Roster | 2012-13 Statistics | 2012-13 Schedule
The Cardinals are making their second straight MIAC Tournament appearance, reaching the semifinals a year ago, before bowing out to eventual tournament champion St. Thomas 58-45. … With Saturday's win over Augsburg, the Cardinals enter post-season play having won four straight and 13 of their last 14. … Saturday's win over Augsburg was the Cardinals' 21st win of the season — the most in coach Mandy Pearson's six years and the most since SMU went 24-3 and finished third in the NCAA regional in 1985-86. … Jamie Stefely (Lisle, Ill.) poured in a team-high 20 points and added 10 rebounds against Augsburg Saturday for her fifth double-double of the season and 16th of her collegiate career. … SMU heads into the post-season having posted back-to-back 20-point scorers — Stefely vs. Augsburg on Saturday and Jessica Thone against Saint Benedict last Wednesday. … Stefely's 20-point effort marked the eighth time this season SMU has boasted a player with 20 or more points. Stefely has done it five times this season, while Thone has done it three times. … Thone has scored 20 or more points nine times in her four-year collegiate career, while Stefely has eclipsed the 20-point barrier eight times. … Stefely owns the team's top single-game scoring performance, netting a game- and season-high 23 points in SMU's win over nationally ranked St. Thomas on Jan. 23. … Thone, who tallied 12 points against Augsburg Saturday, has scored in double figures in 35 of the team's last 41 games. … Thone, who has started every game in her four-year collegiate career — a span of 102 straight games — owns 1,132 career points, ranking her No. 8 all time. … Stefely enters Tuesday's tournament-opener against Gustavus averaging a team-best 13.3 ppg, while Thone is second at 12.4 ppg. … The Cardinals have boasted four players in double figures five times this season. … Thone, the conference assist leader a year ago with 123, dished out a season-high eight assists vs. St. Thomas on Jan. 23, and owns a team-best 91 helpers this season. … Thone has also knocked down 34 of the team's 101 3-pointers, while Darcey Rice (Eagan, Minn. / 23), Bridget Pethke (Larsen, Wis. / 19) and Sara Schoenthaler (Hugo, Minn. / 15) have also netted 10 or more treys. … As a team, the Cardinals drained eight 3-pointers against Saint Benedict last Wednesday, one shy of the season-high nine 3-pointers SMU netted against St. Olaf on Jan. 16. … The Cardinals dished out 28 assists vs. Bethel on Jan. 12, the most since the Cardinals tallied 28 assists vs. Cal Lutheran on Nov. 26, 2004. … The Cardinals enter Tuesday's game against Gustavus averaging 61.0 ppg. … With Saturday's regular-season win against Augsburg, SMU improved to 10-1 on its home court this season — with the lone loss coming at the hands of regular-season champion Concordia on Feb. 3. … On the flip side, SMU's 65-56 win over Bethel on Feb. 9 was the final regular-season road game for the Cardinals, who improved to 10-3 away from home this season. … SMU's 85 points against Bethel in the teams' first meeting on Jan. 12 were a season high, and the most by a Cardinal team since scoring 97 against Augsburg on Dec. 4, 2004. … SMU's 62-59 win over Augsburg in the teams' first meeting on Jan. 19 was the Cardinals' first overtime game of the season. The win also snapped a streak of four straight OT losses, dating back to a 73-69 double-overtime win over Bethel on Jan. 24, 2009. … SMU had its season-high nine-game winning streak snapped with a 64-54 loss to league-leading Concordia on Feb. 3 — it was the Cardinals' longest win streak since SMU opened the 1985-86 season with a 19-game winning streak. … Speaking of snapping streaks, in the span of back-to-back Wednesdays, the Cardinals put an end to a pair of lengthy losing streaks — SMU snapped an 11-game slide against St. Thomas with a 62-56 win over the then-nationally ranked Tommies on Jan. 23, then ended a 13-game losing streak against Gustavus with its Jan. 30, 65-58 victory. … SMU's 15-point second-half comeback in its 55-53 win over Macalester on Feb. 6 was the largest deficit overcome by the Cardinals this season. SMU had rallied from a 13-point deficit in their 62-56 win over St. Thomas on Jan. 23. … The Cardinals have held five opponents to less than 15 first-half points this season. SMU held Alma (Nov. 16), Macalester (Jan. 9), Augsburg (Jan. 19) and Carleton (Feb. 2) each to 14 first-half points, while allowing just nine points in the first half in its first meeting with St. Catherine on Dec. 1.
Scouting The Gustavus Gusties:
2012-13 Roster | 2012-13 Statistics | 2012-13 Schedule
Since the initiation of the six-team MIAC Tournament in the 2000-01 season, Gustavus has qualified for the conference playoffs every year. … The Gusties are making their 13th consecutive appearance in the MIAC Playoffs this season, holding a record of 8-12 all-time in the league's post-season tournament. … Gustavus heads into Tuesday's game at Saint Mary's winless in 10 playoff games away from Gus Young Court. … GAC's 65-49 loss at Concordia Saturday snapped GAC's two-game winning streak. It also dropped the Gusties to 7-6 on the road this season. … Gustavus has been led in scoring by its three upperclassmen — Abby Rothenbuehler, Julia Dysthe, and Kelsey Florian. The three are all averaging in double-figures and make up 57 percent of Gustavus' total scoring output. … The Gusties have boasted a double-figure scorer in each of their 25 games this season — led by Rothenbuehler's season-high 26-point effort against Bethel on Jan. 23. … Rothenbuehler has also scored 23 points in a game this season, while Dysthe has also eclipsed the 20-point mark twice this season, posting games of 23 and 21 points. … Rothenbuehler leads the team with a scoring average of 12.4 ppg, Dysthe is averaging 12.3 ppg and Florian is at 11.8 ppg. … Rothenbuehler owns a team-best 207 rebounds (8.3 rpg), and has been the team's rebounding leader in 21 of its 25 regular-season games. … Rothenbuehler has eclipsed the 200-rebound total in each of the last two seasons, having hauled in 211 boards. … Gustavus' Karina Schroeder is the top-scoring freshman among the six teams in the MIAC Playoffs, averaging 9.8 ppg, while shooting 56 percent from the field and bringing down an average of 5.6 rebounds per game. … As a team, Gustavus is shooting 44.1 percent from the field, ranking second among conference teams. … The Gusties shot 46.4 percent in their 15 wins, but hit on just 40.6 percent in their 10 losses. … GAC enters its tournament-opener at Saint Mary's averaging 63.0 ppg — and has scored 70 or more points five times. … The Gusties netted a season-best 87 points against Hamline on Jan. 5, while netting 86 points in a win over Saint Mary's in the teams' first meeting on Jan. 2. |
