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But, on Monday night, the Saint Mary’s University women’s basketball team hosted St. Catherine without its first-year coach, Shawn Stimmel, who missed the game because of illness.
Despite Stimmel’s absence, and despite the outcome being a 71-56 loss, the Cardinals put together one of their top all-around performances this season.
“We turned the ball over a lot less, we had great team chemistry and we played with a lot of energy,” said assistant coach Zack Vogelsberg, who took the helm in place of Stimmel. “We truly believed we could win for the whole 40 minutes, and it showed.”
The Cardinals (3-7, 1-6) trailed by eight points at halftime but came out in the second half with renewed energy and spirit.
SMU opened the half on a 9-4 run, closing within three points, 44-41, with about 14 minutes remaining.
But then the Wildcats (7-3, 4-3) took control back. St. Catherine went on a 17-6 run that eventually sealed the win.
Still, the Cardinals didn’t lack effort the whole way through.
“We are learning how to play more as a team,” SMU post-player Jess Weisbrod said. “With our team we need contributions from everyone. We don’t have that one player that’s going to do it for us.”
Coming into the game, SMU didn’t have any players averaging double-figures in scoring.
Weisbrod, the teams leading scorer this season, had a team-high 20 points and six rebounds. Kelly Tanke added 16 points.
Vogelsberg said playing a game without Stimmel on the sideline wasn’t too much different than normal, but added that it’s definitely nice to have another person to bounce ideas off of.
“I know his style pretty well,” Vogelsberg said. “I don’t vary much off of what he would do, but when he’s not there a lot of decisions have to be made solely.”
Added Weisbrod: “It was a different (playing without Stimmel), but we talked before the game. We knew we had to be the ones to push each other and we did a good job of it.”
Weisbrod then paused, chuckled and said, “And it’s not like we could slack off because he’s going to see the tape anyway.”
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