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2004-05 Record: 2-0 MIAC / 4-0 Overall
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| Last Week's Results: Saint Mary's 78, St. Kate's 70 / Details Saint Mary's 97, Augsburg 72 / Details |
| Upcoming Games: Mon., Dec. 6: SMU at Macalester, 5:30 p.m. Sat., Dec. 11: Carleton at SMU, 1 p.m. Sun., Dec. 12: Concordia at SMU, 1 p.m. |
| This and That: The Cardinals' 97 points vs. Augsburg Saturday was their highest offensive output since SMU netted 98 vs. the Auggies in the teams' second meeting a year ago. … In last year's meeting, both SMU and Augsburg scored one more point as the Cardinals won 98-73. … … Angie Arrington (Spring Grove, Minn) scored a season-high 26 points in the win vs. Augsburg and averaged 18.5 ppg ppg in SMU's two games. … Ashley Luehmann (Lewiston, Minn.) averaged a team-leading 19.5 ppg in the Cardinals' back-to-back wins last week, while Jamie Rattunde (Rollingstone, Minn.) chipped in an 18.0 ppg average. … SMU got scoring from 10 different players in its lopsided win vs. Augsburg. … Monday's game at Macalester will be SMU's fifth straight road game. The Cardinals open their home season on Saturday against defending MIAC regular season and tournament champion Carleton. … SMU is averaging 82.8 ppg, while holding its opponents to 65.2 ppg. … The Cardinals have three players - Rattunde (18.5 ppg), Arrington (18.0 ppg) and Luehmann (15.0 ppg) averaging in double figures through their first four games. |
WINONA, Minn. - Now that's more like it.
After struggling to a 78-70 win over St. Catherine last Wednesday in their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener, the Saint Mary's University women's basketball team gave the rest of the conference a glimpse at what the "real" Cardinals were capable of Saturday afternoon.
SMU got scoring from 10 different players - including a game-high 26 points from Angie Arrington (Spring Grove, Minn.) - en route to a 97-75 victory over Augsburg.
"We're getting better every game we play," understated SMU coach Dan Messmann, whose team has now opened the season with four straight wins - SMU's best record to open the season since winning 18 straight to start the 1985-86 season. "We're still trying to get more consistent, but it's coming. We're making good progress."
The Cardinals used an 11-5 run early in the first half to take a seven-point lead and never let the Auggies closer than five points the rest of the way.
Ashley Luehmann (Lewiston, Minn.) chipped in 21 points for the Cardinals (2-0 MIAC, 4-0 overall), while Tessa Stranik (Eatonville, Wash.) added 12 points and Jamie Rattunde (Rollingstone, Minn.) tallied 10 points, eight rebounds, six assists and four steals.
"We've done everything we could to this point, and I think we've set ourselves up nicely heading into a big week," said Messmann, whose team takes on Macalester Monday, before finally returning home to take on MIAC powers Carleton and Concordia on back-to-back days Saturday and Sunday. "This is a big week for us heading into the Christmas break. We're not about to look past (Macalester), so that's where are main focus is right now.
"But we also know that we have to be at the top of our game if we are going to compete against Carleton and Concordia this weekend," continued Messmann, whose team went 0-2 against the league-champion and NCAA tournament-qualifying Knights a year ago, while also losing to the Cobbers in last-year's MIAC tournament opening round. "I like where we're at right now - but we've still got a lot of work to do.
"This week will be a great gauge as to just how good we are."