Women's Basketball 1/25/06 -- St. Mary's 52, Augsburg 41

BOXSCORE

WINONA, Minn. (1/25/06) -- If the St. Mary's University women's basketball team was feeling any ill effects from last Saturday's disappointing loss to St. Catherine, they certainly didn't show it Wednesday. Alyse Coates (Fr., West St. Paul, Minn./Henry Sibley HS) made sure of that.

Coates scored a team-best 11 points and pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds to record her first career double-double, and lead the Cardinals to a 52-41 win over visiting Augsburg College in a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game at the SMU Gym.

Plagued by second-half meltdowns all season, the Cardinals -- with Coates at the helm -- never let the Auggies dig out of their first-half hole, outscoring Augsburg 27-23 over the game's final 20 minutes, after taking a 25-18 advantage into the locker room at the half.

The Cardinals jumped out to a 16-2 first-half lead and didn't let the Auggies any closer than 10, before Augsburg closed the half with a 4-1 run to cut the gap to seven.

The Auggies scored the first four points of the second half to make it a four-point game, but SMU responded with a 19-6 outburst that gave the Cardinals their biggest lead of the game, 44-28, with 11:06 remaining.

Coates, who collected 10 of her 12 rebounds on the offensive glass, hit 5 of 11 field goals and 1 of 2 free throws en route to her 11-point night. Sarah Murphy (Jr., Belle Plaine, Minn.) also scored 11 points for SMU (7-9 overall, 4-8 MIAC), while Danielle Dehning (Fr., Spring Grove, Minn.) chipped in 10.

Kristina Lurken (So., Kenyon, Minn./Kenyon-Wanamingo HS) netted a game-high 14 points in the losing effort for Augsburg (4-12 overall, 2-10 MIAC). Michelle Richter (Fr., Chaska, Minn.) had six points and eight assists, while Jacci Mattern (Fr., Lakeville, Minn.) had six points and three steals.

Both teams return to action on Saturday (1/28) at 1 p.m., with Augsburg hosting Bethel and St. Mary's playing at Macalester.