WINONA, Minn. — Dan Messmann knew the outcome to Sunday's game against Concordia was going to come down to how much gas his Saint Mary's University women's basketball team had left in the tank.

After all, the Cardinals were coming off a hard-fought 82-69 win over Macalester just 24 hours earlier, and their up-tempo style isn't accustomed to back-to-back games.

Unfortunately for Messmann, the Cardinals' tank hit empty just short of the filling station, as Concordia escaped with a 66-65 victory.

"It was one of those games that could have gone either way," said Messmann, whose team fell a full game behind the fifth-place Cobbers in the race for MIAC post-season tournament berths. "It would have been nice to have come away with a win, because it would have not only moved us ahead of (Concordia) in the standings, but it would have given us the tiebreaker over them.

"In the big picture, this (loss) doesn't really hurt us all that much," admitted Messmann. "If we can win two of our last three games, we'll still get in (the playoffs)."

If.

Winning two of three won't be an easy task, as SMU travels to Gustavus (second in the conference) on Wednesday, plays host to Augsburg (11th in the MIAC) on Saturday, and hosts St. Catherine (seventh in the MIAC, one-half game behind SMU) in their season finale on Feb. 19.

"The key for us is to just go out and play our game," said Messmann. "We can't worry about what everyone else (in the conference) is doing, we have to stay focused on what we're doing.

"Hopefully we can take some positives away from (the Concordia game) and regain some momentum heading down the final stretch."

After falling behind by as many as 10 in the second half, the Cardinals cut the Cobbers' lead to three, 64-61 with four minutes remaining, got to within one on Ashley Luehmann's (Lewiston, Minn.) layup with two minutes to go, and took their first lead of the second half on a pair of Beth Walch (Altura, Minn.) free throws with 1:06 remaining.

Concordia's Jamie Stensgard hit the front end of a double-bonus to tie the game at 65-65, and after a Walch miss, Kasey Bostow hit one of two free throws to give the Cobbers the lead for good. Jaimie Lee (Eden Prairie, Minn.) had a chance to win it for the Cardinals, but her 3-pointer with two seconds remaining hit the rim and bounced out. SMU fouled with 1.6 seconds left and Concordia's Trisha Steinborn missed a pair of free throws, but SMU could not get the ball up court as the buzzer sounded.

While the rest of her Cobber teammates were struggling to hit just two free throws in a row, Concordia sophomore Jamie Visness was a perfect 4-for-4, with her third free throw breaking the all-time, all-division record for consecutive made free throws. Visness has now made 68 straight free throws, eclipsing the old mark set by Richmond's Ginny Doyle.

Luehmann finished with a team-high 15 points for the Cardinals, who fall to 9-10 in the MIAC and 9-13 overall. Lee and Walch also finished in double figures for SMU, scoring 12 and 10 points, respectively.

"Going back-to-back was tough on our players," Messmann said. "We played hard, but I think in the end, we ran out of gas a bit."

* THIS AND THAT: Concordia held SMU's leading scorer, Jamie Rattunde (Rollingstone, Minn.) to just eight points Sunday, marking just the fifth time in SMU's 22 games that she has not scored in double figures. … Libby Kiedrowski (Minneapolis, Minn.) scored a career-high 14 points vs. Macalester last Saturday. … SMU dropped both of its home games last week, while going 1-0 on the road. The Cardinals are now 4-5 at home, and 5-7 on the road. … Rattunde, who scored 20 points vs. Macalester — one point shy of her season high — and leads the team in scoring with a 14.7 ppg average. … Ashley Luehmann (Lewiston, Minn. / 10.9 ppg) and Jaimie Lee (Eden Prairie, Minn. / 10.5 ppg) are also averaging in double figures.