WINONA, Minn. – It's been 18 years since the Saint Mary's University women's basketball team has beaten St. Thomas.

Saturday afternoon, the Cardinals came oh, so close to finally putting an end to that 36-game streak.

Oh, so close.

After falling behind by as many as 14 points in the second half, the Cardinals closed to within one point with three seconds remaining in regulation — only to have the Tommies hit three straight free throws in the final seconds to ice a 76-72 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference win.

"We just ran out of time," said SMU coach Dan Messmann, whose team scored a season-high 50 points in the second half. "If we would have had another 30 seconds, there's no doubt in my mind we would have come out on top."

Unfortunately for Messmann, a college basketball game is 40 minutes long — no more.

"The effort was there, no question about that," said Messmann, whose team trailed by 14 at the half, 36-22. "We've been playing very well lately, and to come back in the second half like that was good to see — we just ran out of time."

Jamie Rattunde (Rollingstone, Minn.), who scored a game-high 19 points, hit a layup with three seconds remaining to cut the Tommies' lead to one, 73-72, but that was as close as the Cardinals would get.

"We didn't play too well (in the first half), but we really came on strong in the second," said Messmann, whose team had its two-game winning streak snapped, but has won five of its last seven games. "If we are going to play with the best teams in the conference, we need to play (like we did in the second half), for the entire game."

Like they did last Wednesday against Bethel.

Angie Arrington (Spring Grove, Minn.) scored a game-high 22 points and Ashley Luehmann (Lewiston, Minn.) came off the bench to chip in 19, as SMU cruised to a 73-45 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference win over Bethel.

"It was a good team effort," said Messmann, noting the absence of leading scorer Rattunde from the scoring leaders. Rattunde, who entered the game averaging more than 14 ppg, was held to six points by the Royals.

"(Bethel) did a nice job of containing (Jamie), so we needed some other people to step up — and Angie and Ashley did just that," Messmann said. "Jamie made her presence felt in other ways (eight steals, six rebounds and three assists). Everyone contributed in their own way, and that's what we need."

The Cardinals wasted little time putting the win away, using a 16-4 run over the final minutes of the first half to take a commanding 34-22 cushion into the lockerroom.

Act II was just as impressive, as SMU opened with three straight 3-pointers, two by Arrington and another by Tessa Stranik (Eastonville, Wash.) to pad SMU's lead to 21, 43-22.

"Even with that loss (to St. Thomas), we are playing with a ton of confidence right now," said Messmann. "You can see it in everyone's eyes.

"They are having a lot of fun."

And the fun certainly would continue if the Cardinals could hand Carleton its first loss of the season tonight.

“We’re looking forward to another shot at them,” said Messmann, whose team lost 78-37 in the teams’ first meeting. “We’re playing much better now than we were then, so it will be good to see how we stack up.”