WINONA, Minn... — The Saint Mary's University women's basketball team has been making plenty of noise of late – posting back-to-back victories over Coe College and Hamline in the last week.

Problem was, as impressive as the Cardinals have been, the cheers for their efforts were few and far between.

That's because SMU opened its season with four straight road games.

Last Saturday at the SMU Gym, the home crowd got to see what the Cardinals could do.

And do they did.

Angie Arrington (Spring Grove, Minn.) led four players in double figures as SMU rolled to an 82-62 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference win over the Oles — equaling the highest offensive output in coach Dan Messmann's tenure at Saint Mary's.

"Everyone was really fired up to play in front of their family, friends and the entire (SMU) community," said Messmann. "To start the season with four straight road games is tough — you always like to play in front of the home crowd."

And the home crowd certainly liked what it saw.

Arrington tossed in 18 points, while Jamie Rattunde (Rollingstone, Minn.) finished with 16 points and nine rebounds — just missing her third straight game of at least a double-double by one rebound. Ashley Luehmann (Lewiston, Minn.) chipped in 13 points and Beth Walch (Altura, Minn.) tallied 12.

"Offensively, you can really see the evolution of this team over the past three games," said Messmann, noting that the Cardinals shot a dismal 34 percent from the field in its opening two games — losses to Whitworth and Puget Sound — but have since hovered around the 50 percent plateau in their last three games. "Obviously, you are going to win more games shooting 50 percent (from the field) than 34 percent. We are finally starting to knock down some shots."

Some?

After struggling to an eight-point, 36-28 halftime edge vs. St. Olaf, the Cardinals came out and knocked down seven 3-pointers in their first eight baskets to put the game out of reach. SMU led 66-49 with 6:42 remaining, and never looked back.

"I was very pleased with the way we played," said Messmann, whose team puts its perfect 2-0 MIAC record — and its three-game winning streak — on the line tonight vs. Bethel. "We're getting there — everyone on this team is realizing that we have a lot of weapons, and that we can beat teams in a lot of different ways.

"We just need to keep playing together and keep working hard."