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2003-2004 Record: 12-5 MIAC / 13-7 Overall
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| Last Week's Results: Wed., Feb., 4: Carleton 79, Saint Mary's 68 Sat., Feb. 7: Saint Mary's 54, Macalester 38 |
| This Week's Games: Mon., Feb. 9: at St. Benedict, 7:30 p.m. Wed., Feb., 11: Gustavus, 7:30 p.m. Sat., Feb. 14: at Augsburg 1 p.m. Sun.., Feb. 15: Concordia, 1 p.m. |
| This and That: With Saturday's win, SMU locked up one of the six spots for the MIAC post-season tournament — it will be the fourth straight year SMU has reached the postseason. … Jamie Rattunde (Rollingstone, Minn.) had her streak of 20-plus points a game snapped at six Saturday vs. Macalester. … Rattunde did score 16 points and add 15 rebounds vs. the Scots for her ninth double-double of the season. … Rattunde also scored a career-high 28 points in last Wednesday's loss at Carleton. … Ashley Luehmann (Lewiston, Minn.) netted 22 points in SMU's win vs. Macalester, marking the eight time this year she's scored 20 or more. … SMU has now won five of its last six. … The Cardinals' 54-point performance vs. Macalester Saturday equalled its lowest offensive output of the season. The other time SMU scored 54 was a 58-54 loss to Puget Sound on Nov. 22, 2003. |
WINONA, Minn. — How good were Ashley Luehmann (Lewiston, Minn.) and Jamie Rattunde (Rollingstone, Minn.) last Saturday afternoon against Macalester?
Luehmann scored a game-high 22 points — including more points in the first half (15) than the entire Macalester team (14) — while Rattunde netted 16 points and added a season-high 15 rebounds for her ninth double-double of the season.
Together, the duo scored 38 points — equaling the Scots' entire offensive output.
They were that good.
And with those two lighting up the scoreboard, the rest of the Cardinals just hopped along for the ride as SMU cruised to its fifth win in its last six games with a 54-38 Minneesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory.
"Offensively, olther than Ash and Jamie, we didn't play all that well," said SMU coach Dan Messmann. "It wasn't that we weren't getting good looks, or running our offense the way we wanted to, we just weren't making any shots."
Messmann wasn't exaggerating, either.
Despite the lopsided final score, the Cardinals did not enjoy one of their best offensive outings, shooting just 31.7 percent from the field (19-for-60) — including just 7 of 29 from beyond the 3-point line. SMU also made just 9 of 17 free throws.
"I can't explain it," Messmann said. "It was just one of those days when we couldn't knock our shots down."
The Cardinals (12-5 MIAC, 13-7 overall) wasted little time putting things out of reach, scoring 13 of the game's first 15 points and leading by as many as 10 points on four separate occasions before settling for a 23-14 halftime advantage.
SMU continued to pour it on in the second half, leading by as many as 20, 53-33, on a 3-pointer by Tessa Stranik (Eatonville, Wash.), before Macalester closed with a mild 5-1 run over the final four minutes.
"The bottom line is, we need to shoot the ball better — but we did get the win, and at this stage in the season, that's the most important thing," said Messmann, whose team faces the daunting task of playing four games in a seven-day stretch beginning Monday at St. Benedict. "We've already locked up a playoff spot, so the key now is to make sure we use this week to get ourselves playing at the highest level possible heading into the postseason."