Game Summary

WINONA, Minn. — Saint Mary's University men's basketball coach Bob Biebel has always been one to find a silver lining, no matter how bad things may seem.

Saturday afternoon, however, Biebel's silver mine went dry.

"They beat us in every facet of the game — and beat us soundly," said Biebel, after watching him score just 31 points in a 59-31 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference loss to Gustavus Saturday afternoon at the SMU Gym. "I honestly thought that, after the way we played on Wednesday (in a 87-84 win over St. Olaf), we were going to come out and give Gustavus a game.

"Boy, was I wrong."

Biebel could find solace in the fact that the Cardinals held the league-leading Gusties to just 59 points — the third-fewest points allowed by SMU this season.

Problem is, despite scoring just 59 points, the Gusties' 32 first-half points were one more than the Cardinals scored the entire game.

"I was very disappointed in our effort," admitted Biebel, whose team fell to 4-9 in the MIAC and 4-13 overall. "We had no emotion, no energy, and that's disappointing."

Almost as disappointing as the Cardinals' offensive numbers:

• Nick Michaels (Dyer, Ind.) and Jon Skalski (Oshkosh, WIs.) led the Cardinals with six points.

• As a team, the Cardinals shot just 28 percent from the field — 8-for-23 in the first half and 5-for-23 in the second.

• SMU was just 3 of 14 from the 3-point line, and they were outrebounded 43-27 and committed 22 turnovers.

"Gustavus is a very, very good team, take nothing away from them — they came in here ready to play and they just took it to us," said Biebel, whose team has now dropped six of its last seven games — and have scored more than 60 points just once in that stretch. "But for us to come out and play the way we did, that's just not acceptable."

Fortunately for the Cardinals, there's no time to dwell on their offensive struggles, as they travel to St. Thomas on Monday for the start of three games in six days.

"We've got to come up with some answers — and quick," said Biebel. "We can't show up one day, like we did against St. Olaf, and shoot lights-out, and then turn around a shoot the ball like we did (against Gustavus). We've got to find some consistency, and we've got to get this team focused on playing their best basketball every minute their on the floor."