The Teams
Saint Mary's Cardinals (6-8 MIAC, 7-10)
vs.
Augsburg Auggies (7-7, 9-8)
The Vitals
Saturday, Feb. 3 • SMU Gym • 3 p.m.
First Meeting
Stacy Hammel (Manitowoc, Wis.) recorded her first double-double of the season, netting 16 points and pulling down 13 rebounds in the Cardinals' 69-60 victory.
Last Action
The Cardinals dropped their second straight game on Thursday, losing to Gustavus 78-58. … Augsburg, meanwhile, notched its second straight win, beating Hamline 76-64.
This and That
Jenny Gilles (Keizer, Ore.), who scored a game-high 20 points in Thursday's loss to Gustavus, has been the Cardinals leading scorer in each of the last three games and is averaging a team-high 11.2 ppg. … SMU has had three two-game winning streaks, but the Cardinals have yet to put together a win streak of longer than two games.
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CARDINAL PROFILEAmy Burns
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right today against Auggies
WINONA, Minn. — Ever have one of those nights when, no matter how hard you try, nothing seems to go right?
The Saint Mary’s University women’s basketball team has had a week like that.
First, there was the rain/ice storm that forced the postponement of Monday’s games, pushing the Cardinals’ showdown with Gustavus back to Thursday — meaning SMU would be playing three games in a span of four days.
Then, came the Wednesday’s disappointing performance against then-leading-leading St. Thomas, which scored more points in the second half (53), than SMU could muster for the entire game (51), as the Tommies cruised to an 89-51 setback.
Then there was Thursday’s 78-58 loss to the Gusties.
Talk about nothing going right … .
Still smarting from the night before, the Cardinals came out flat against Gustavus, hitting just eight of their 27 first-half field goal attempts in falling behind 38-24 at the intermission.
Unable to penetrate a Gustie defense than included 6-foot-2 Kelly Etzel and 6-4 Tricia Niebuhr, the Cardinals tried to go outside — with the same sort of results. SMU hit just 5 of 14 3-pointers, including four from leading scorer Jenny Gilles, who finished with a game-high 20 points.
With Etzel and Niebuhr making life miserable underneath the basket on both ends of the floor, the Gusties didn’t need an outside presence, as they hit just 1 of 2 3s — a buzzer-beating, half-court prayer for Gustavus’ final three points.
“I’m not very happy with the way we played at all,” admitted SMU coach Kim Fierke, whose team fell to 6-8 in the MIAC and 7-10 overall. “We weren’t ready to go at the start and Gustavus took advantage of that.
“I’ve been saying all season that we have to make sure to come out mentally focused and ready to play from the opening tip to the final horn,” Fierke continued. “We didn’t do that.”
And the penalty for their actions, or lack thereof, was more than a second straight setback.
The loss to Gustavus, coupled with Augsburg’s 76-64 triumph over Hamline, put the Auggies one game ahead of the Cardinals in the race for the sixth and final MIAC post-season playoff spot.
Which makes today’s showdown between SMU and Augsburg that much more important.
“We are a much better team than we’ve shown the last two games,” Fierke said. “But I can’t just keep saying that. Now it’s time for us to step up and prove it on the court.”
Fueled by Stacy Hammel’s (Manitowoc, Wis.) first double-double of the season (16 points, 13 rebounds), the Cardinals slipped past the Auggies 69-60 in their first meeting this season — and a sweep would be just what the doctor ordered as the Cardinals make their final push toward a conference-tournament berth.
“Sure, this is a big game — they’re all big games,” Fierke said. “But our main concern has to be putting our best game on the floor every night — it’s that simple.”