Box Score  | GameDay Program

ST. PAUL, Minn. — It may not have been pretty, and it may have given Saint Mary's University women's basketball coach Mandy Pearson a few gray hairs, but the bottom line was, when the final horn sounded Wednesday evening, the Cardinals had conference win No. 15.

Trailing by as many as 15 points in the second half, the Cardinals used a 24-7 run over the game's final nine minutes to rally for a 55-53 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory over the host Scots at Leonard Center.

The win, coupled with Saint Benedict's victory over league-leading Concordia on Wednesday, made the race for the conference's regular-season title all that much more interesting.

With three games remaining in the regular season, Concordia and Saint Benedict are tied for the league lead at 16-3, one game in front of Saint Mary's and St. Thomas, who are tied for third at 15-4. All four have already locked up berths in the six-team MIAC Tournament — and thanks to Wednesday's game-ending run against the Scots, the Cardinals' hopes for their first regular-season title since 1985-86 are still alive and well.

It didn't look that way with eight minutes remaining in regulation, however.

Trailing by 15, 46-31 with 8:54 on the clock, the Cardinals got down to business, scoring 10 unanswered points — capped by a Brittany Begrowicz (Des Plaines, Ill.) 3-pointer — to make it a four-point game, 46-42, with 5:58 on the clock.

The Cardinals knotted the game for the fifth and final time, 50-50, on the first of two free throws by Jessica Thone (Woodbury, Minn.). Thone's second free throw gave SMU the lead for good, 52-51.

Two more Thone free throws gave SMU a 54-51 lead, and, after Kyanna Jones scored on a layup to pull Macalester back within one, 54-53, Darcey Rice (Eagan, Minn.) made one of two free throws to put SMU back up by two, 55-53. Jones had a chance to tie it at the buzzer, but her jumper missed the mark.

Begrowicz and Jamie Stefely (Lisle, Ill.) led the way for the Cardinals, scoring 12 points each, while Courtney Euerle (Litchfield, Minn.) hauled in a team-best 10 rebounds and Thone finished with eight points and four assists.

Jones poured in a game-high 15 points for the Scots, who also got 10 points from Taylor Pike.

With the win, the Cardinals improved to 18-4 overall — the most wins under coach Pearson and the most since SMU went 24-3. SMU returns to action on Saturday, traveling to Arden Hills, Minn., for a 1 p.m. conference game against Bethel.