ST. PAUL, Minn. — So much for smooth sailing.

The Saint Mary's University women's basketball team seemed to have everything going in their favor — including a three-game winning streak and upcoming games against a pair of teams they had already beaten rather easily.

The Cardinals' joy ride, however, picked up a flat tire on Wednesday, as Hamline — a team SMU beat 65-51 in the teams' first meeting this season — extracted a bit of revenge, edging the Cardinals 73-72 in a Minnesota Intercollegiate Atheltic Conference game.

Jamie Rattunde (Rollingstone, Minn.) tossed in a game-high 18 points, while Jaimie Lee (Eden Prairie, Minn.) and Beth Walch (Altura, Minn.) chipped in 15 and 14 points, respectively for the Cardinals, who had not lost since a 74-50 loss to Gustavus on Jan. 11.

"You have to give Hamline a lot of credit, they shot the ball very well," said SMU coach Dan Messmann, whose team dropped to 6-7 in the MIAC and 6-10 overall. "We did our part to give the game away, but Hamline never backed down, they just kept making big shot after big shot."

The Pipers grabbed a four-point lead with less than five seconds remaining, before Lee hit her foruth 3-pointer at the buzzer to make it a one-point game.

"We had our chances," said Messmann. "We knew going in that Hamline was a scary team to play, just because they can shoot the ball so well from the outside. It's a tough one to lose, but we'll be OK — we need to regroup and focus on getting a win Saturday (vs.St. Olaf)."