WINONA, Minn... — After watching his Saint Mary's University women's basketball team struggle to shoot just 35 percent from the field in their season-opening 74-60 loss to Whitworth at the Puget Sound Tip-Off Classic, coach Dan Messmann must have figured it couldn't get any worse.

Fortunately for Messmann, it didn't in SMU's second game of the two-day tournament.

But it wasn't much better — and it wasn't enough to give SMU its first win of the season.

The Cardinals shot an impressive 43 percent from the field in the first half of last Saturday's game against host Puget Sound, and held a three-point, 31-28 advantage at the break. From there, however, things went cold — ice cold — for SMU, as the Cardinals connected on just 8 of 25 field goal attempts, including 3-for-14 from beyond the 3-point line, as Puget Sound rallied for a 58-54 victory.

In their opening-round game last Friday, Whitworth left the door open, but the Cardinals just couldn't get through it before the Pirates slammed it shut.

Despite shooting just 31 percent from the field in the opening half, Whitworth turned a two-point, 31-29 halftime lead into a 20-point second-half cushion en route to a 74-60 win over the Cardinals.

"In both games, we played pretty well in streaks, but we weren't able to sustain it," said Messmann. "We ran into a few injuries that really hurt us depth-wise, but the bottom line was, we weren't able to make the shorts when we needed to.

"We executed well, but we weren't able to turn that execution into points," Messmann continued. "You aren't going to win many ball games shooting as poorly from the field as we did.

"We had the same trouble last year — we'd get good looks at the basket, but we couldn't get the shots to fall," added Messmann. "We've got to shoot the ball better, that's the bottom line."

SMU shot just 36 percent from the field in the two games, making 40 of 110 field goals — including just 12 of 42 from beyond the three-point line.

One player who was zeroed in for the Cardinals was Ashley Luehmann (Lewiston, Minn.), who scored team highs of 23 points vs. Whitworth and 26 vs. Puget Sound — earning the sophomore all-tournament honors. Jamie Rattunde (Rollingstone, Minn.), SMU's leading scorer a year ago, was hampered by foul trouble all weekend, averaging just 8.5 ppg and 8.5 rpg.

"Despite the losses, it was a good weekend for us," said Messmann. "After the long preseason, it was nice to get a couple of games under our belts. Hopefully we learned a little bit about what we need to work on, and we can go from there."