TACOMA, Wash... — Whitworth left the door open, the Saint Mary's University women's basketball team just couldn't get through it before the Pirates slammed it shut Friday afternoon in the opening round of the University of Puget Sound Tip-Off Classic.

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 teams' season opener.

"This was one of those games where we played pretty well in streaks, but we weren't able to sustain it," said SMU coach Dan Messmann. "We ran into a few injuries that really hurt us depthwise, 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 34 percent from the field, which is what we did. Hopefully we can rebound and come back and play better (Saturday) against Puget Sound."

Ashley Luehmann (Lewiston, Minn.) scored a team-high 23 points and pulled down nine rebounds for the Cardinals, while Tiffany Spear scored a game-high 31 points and added five assists and nine rebounds for the Pirates.