THE MATCHUP

Saint Mary's vs. St. Thomas vs. Saturday, Jan. 15, 2005 SMU Gym 1 p.m.

GAMEDAY PLAYER PROFILE

Jamie Rattunde Year Senior Position Guard Hometown Rollingstone, Minn.

For the official GameDay Program for today's game pdf / click here (pdf)

WINONA, Minn. — If their current three-game stretch were an Oreo cookie, Wednesday's game against Hamline would have been the white, creamy filling for the Saint Mary's University women's basketball team.

Fresh off a hard-luck loss to MIAC-power St. Benedict last Saturday — on heading into a showdown with arch-rival St. Thomas on Saturday — the Cardinals were in dire need of a sweet performance against the Pipers.

How sweet it was!

Ashley Luehmann (Lewiston, Minn.) equaled her season high with 21 points, leading five SMU players in double figures as the Cardinals knocked off Hamline 88-78 in a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game.

“I was a little worried about this game, especially because we were coming off such a tough loss (to St. Ben’s) and we had such an emotional game coming up (today against the Tommies,” admitted SMU coach Dan Messmann. “But we got contributions from a lot of different players and everyone stayed focused on the task at hand — it was a good team win.”

Jamie Rattunde (Rollingstone, Minn.) got SMU off and running, scoring nine of her 15 points and dishing out seven of her 11 assists in the first half as the Cardinals raced out to a 43-35 halftime advantage.

Hamline scored the first two baskets of the second half to cut the lead to 43-39, and the Pipers cut the lead to four points four more times in the half before SMU used a 12-2 run — capped by three three-pointers from Luehmann — to take a 75-55 edge with 4:53 remaining. The Pipers made one last, late-game charge with a 20-8 spurt, but could get no closer than 83-75 with 1:00 left.

Along with Luehmann's 21 points and Rattunde's third double-double of the season, the Cardinals also got 17 points from Angie Arrington (Spring Grove, Minn.), 12 points from Jessica Weisbrod (Rollingstone, Minn.) and 11 points from Megan Moran (Burlington, Wis.).

“We needed that win, but now we’ve got to turn our attention to St. Thomas,” said Messmann, whose team snapped a 38-game losing streak vs. the Tommies in last year’s first meeeting. “It’s a big game, and we’re going to need big performances from everyone if we are going to come out on top.”