WINONA, Minn. — Saint Mary's University women's basketball coach Dan Messmann figured last Saturday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game against St. Olaf would be a good barometer as to where his team fit into the conference race.

After all, the Oles were an MIAC tournament team a year ago, and the Oles returned three starters off that team.

When the final horn sounded, Messmann had little trouble passing judgment: The Cardinals' defense is awfully stingy — and the SMU offense isn't too bad, either.

Jamie Rattunde (Rollingstone, Minn.) scored a game-high 17 points and the SMU defense held St. Olaf to 16 first-half points en route to a 60-44 victory Saturday afternoon at the SMU gym.

"This was a good win for us," said Messmann, whose team has now won back-to-back conference games, pushing their MIAC record to 2-1, and their overall mark to 2-3. "St. Olaf was a playoff team last year and they have a lot of players returning, so we knew this was going to be a good test for us."

A test the Cardinals passed with flying colors.

Led by Rattunde and Ashley Luehmann (Lewiston, Minn.), who finished with 11 points, the Cardinals jumped out to a 25-16 halftime advantage — thanks in part to an 11-0 run midway through the half — then outscored the Oles 35-28 over the game's final 20 minutes to secure the win.

"Our defense was outstanding," said Messmann, whose team held the Oles to 26 percent shooting from the field (15-for-57). "Our goal was to will the other team to play our style — we took away the outside shots and didn't give them any long-range looks.

"By putting pressure on the outside, and not allowing them to reverse the ball, we were able to shut them down fairly well," continued Messmann. "I thought overall we played pretty well — we struggled a little bit early, but once we got into a rhythm, we were pretty tough."

* THIS AND THAT: Jamie Rattunde (Rollingstone, Minn.) averaged 18.0 ppg in the Cardinals' two games last week — scoring 19 points vs. Hamline last Wednesday, and 17 vs. St. Olaf on Saturday. … Rattunde boasts a team-leading 17.6 ppg average, while Jaimie Lee (Eden Prairie, Minn.) and Ashley Luehmann (Lewiston, Minn.) are also averaging in double figures at 11.8 and 10.6 ppg, respectively. … After going 2-0 on their home floor last week, the Cardinals will now play their next five games on the road — not returning home until a Jan. 8 meeting vs. Macalester. … The Cardinals have outscored their opponents 165-139 in the first half.