The Teams
Saint Mary's Cardinals (8-9 MIAC, 9-11)
vs.
Carleton Knights (15-2 MIAC, 17-3)
The Vitals
Saturday, Feb. 10 • SMU Gym • 3 p.m.
First Meeting
Karen Fricke came off the bench and scored a career-high 18 points as Carleton rallied from a five-point halftime deficit to beat Cardinals 69-55
Last Action
The Cardinals fell behind by 22 points at halftime, then had their second-half rally come up just short in a 64-58 loss at Hamline Wednesday. … Carleton, meanwhile, extended its winning streak to a school-record eight games with a 80-69 win over Bethel.
This and That
Amy Burns (Winona, Minn.) scored a team-high 15 points vs. Hamline. … Jenny Gilles (Kezier, Ore.) leads the Cardinals in scoring, averaging 11.5 ppg. … The Cardinals are 4-5 on their home floor. … Today's game is the final home game of the season for SMU. … Carleton's 15 conference wins and 17 overall victories are both school records.
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CARDINAL PROFILEJenny Lee
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to slow down Carleton's charge
WINONA, Minn. — Heading into last Wednesday’s game against Hamline, Saint Mary’s University women’s basketball coach Kim Fierke said her Cardinals’ hold on the sixth and final playoff spot was fragile at best.
After all, Augsburg and St. Olaf were both lurking in the shadows, hoping to pounce on that post-season invitation, should the Cardinals slip up.
And, with games against league-leaders St. Benedict, Carleton and Concordia among its final five, the Cardinals’ road to the post-season was certainly filled with plenty of minefields.
One way to solidify their strangle-hold on that sixth spot — and make the road a little less hazardous — would be to beat the Pipers on Wednesday.
Having already dispatched of Hamline rather handily earlier this year — the Cardinals got a game-high 16 points from Jenny Gilles (Keizer, Ore.) in a 57-43 triumph on Jan. 10 — that didn’t appear to be too big a task.
But then, you know what they say … things aren’t always as they appear.
The Cardinals struggled from the field in the first half against the Pipers, hitting just 9 of 26 field goal attempts. Hamline, meanwhile, was virtually unstoppable, netting 20 of 29 field goal attempts en route to a commanding 45-23 halftime advantage.
Saint Mary’s got back on track in the second half, outscoring the host Pipers 35-19, but it wasn’t quite enough as the Cardinals saw their two-game winning streak disappear, 64-58, — while also putting a monkey wrench in their playoff plans.
“Hamline is always a tough place to play,” admitted Fierke. “And for the first 20 minutes, we pretty much left our game on the bus.”
Until the second half.
SMU held the Pipers to seven field goals in the final 20 minutes — and Hamline did its part to let the Cardinals back in the game by hitting just 5 of 16 free throws — but the first-half hole was just too big.
“That first half just killed us,” admitted Fierke. “You can’t go down 22 points and expect to come back and get things done. We’ve struggled to put together a complete game all season, and that was just another example.”
A repeat performance this afternoon against Carleton, however, could prove disastrous.
The Knights enter today’s contest in the midst of a school-record eight-game winning streak — including a 69-64 win over perennial MIAC power St. Benedict — and have already set school records for overall and conference wins.
And while a win this afternoon would be a huge boost for the Cardinals’ post-season hopes, there may be even more pressure on the Knights to win.
“This is a big game for us, but it’s probably an even bigger game (for Carleton),” said Fierke, noting that a Carleton loss would knock the Knights off their perch atop the conference, and, quite possibly, out of a home-court playoff game. “Hopefully we can go out, play well for 40 minutes, and play the role of the spoiler at the same time.”