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ST. PAUL, Minn. — Ask Saint Mary's University women's basketball coach Mandy Pearson, and she'll tell you that every game the Cardinals play in the MIAC is a big game.

But there certainly were none bigger than Saturday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference showdown with St. Thomas.

Just look at the tale of the tape:

Saint Mary's: Unbeaten in its last 16 games. … First in the MIAC with a 16-1 record. … Ranked No. 18 in the latest D3hoops.com Top 25.

St. Thomas: Unbeaten in its last six games and owners of an 89-13 record against MIAC foes since January, 2010. … Second in the MIAC with a 15-2 record. … Ranked No. 16 in the latest D3hoops.com Top 25.

It had all the makings of a classic battle of MIAC heavyweights.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, St. Thomas delivered a first-half haymaker — building leads as big as 20 points — and SMU could not recover, as the Tommies cruised to a 65-48 conference victory at Schoenecker Arena.

With the loss — which snapped SMU's longest winning streak since opening the 1985-86 season rattling off 19 straight victories — the Cardinals slipped into a first-place tie with the Tommies atop the conference standings, one game in front of Concordia with four games remaining in the regular season.

The Cardinals jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead, but the Tommies answered with 12 consecutive points to take a 12-7 advantage — a lead UST would not relinquish the rest of the afternoon.

UST pushed the lead to 20, 31-11 with 3:07 to go in the opening 20 minutes, before SMU closed the half on a 6-2 run to make it a 16-point game, 33-17, at the intermission.

SMU again came out swinging in the second half, getting five straight points from Bridget Pethke (New London, Wis.) to highlight a 7-2 half-opening run and cut the Tommies' lead to 11, 35-24.

That, however, would be as close as the Cardinals would get, as UST rebuilt its lead to a game-high 21, 52-31, before holding off one last SMU surge to seal the victory.

Pethke finished with a team-high 16 points on 4 of 6 shooting from the field and an 8-for-9 effort from the free throw line, while Darcey Rice (Eagan, Minn.) knocked down three 3-pointers and finished with 11 points for the Cardinals.

Maggie Weiers finished with a game-high 18 points to lead three Tommies in double figures, with Taylor Young and Katie Stone each added 13 points.

SMU struggled to find its shooting touch all game, hitting just one of its first seven field-goal attempts, and finishing just 14 of 50 (28 percent) from the field. St. Thomas, meanwhile, shot 46 percent from the field, draining 25 of 54 field goal attempts.

The Cardinals (16-2 MIAC, 19-2 overall) are back on the court on Wednesday, as they host St. Catherine in a 7:30 p.m. MIAC contest at the SMU Gym.