Game Summary
ST. PAUL, Minn. — It was like the Saint Mary's University men's basketball team had stepped into a time machine and turned the clock back a head.
Only last year wasn't exactly a year that the Cardinals and coach Bob Biebel wanted to relive over again.
Yet, there they were Wednesday night, reliving the nightmare all over again.
The Cardinals had the lead in 10 of their 24 games in 2001-2002, yet in just three of those games, did SMU come out on top en route to its 5-19 overall record.
They weren't leading after 20 minutes against the Tommies Wednesday night, but they were close, very close.
Unfortunately, that two-point halftime deficit quickly ballooned to 16, 50-34, thanks to a 21-7 UST run to open the second half — and the Tommies never looked back en route to a 65-45 win over the Cardinals.
"We have to find a way to play better in the second half, no question about that," said Biebel, whose Cardinals have now lost 29 straight to the Tommies. "The last two years, that's been the story — we're ahead or right in the game at halftime, and then we just fall apart.
"We're just not getting the job done."
After shooting 31 percent from the field (10-for-32) in the first half, the Cardinals' hot hands turned to ice in the second half, making just 6 of 31 field goal attempts — including just 3 of 16 from beyond the 3-point line.
"I don't know what happened," admitted Biebel, whose team fell to 1-3 in the MIAC and 1-5 overall with their third straight loss. "We were just stone-cold in the second half — we were getting good looks, we just didn't make them."
And the most the Cardinals missed, the more the frustration built — and the more the Tommies took advantage.
"Once we started missing our shots, we started pressing more and more, and you can't do that," said Biebel, who got a team-leading 11 points from Lance Larson (Lakeville, Minn.). "Right now our biggest problem consistency — we're not playing consistent on either end of the court. We've got to find a way to play a full 40-minute basketball game — it's that simple."
