Game Summary

LA CROSSE, Wis. — Defensively, the Saint Mary's University men's basketball team made giants strides Saturday evening against UW-La Crosse.

The Cardinals, who gave up 95 points in their season-opening 95-61 loss to cross-town rival Winona State, held the host Eagles to just 56 points Saturday.

Offensively, however, the Cardinals took a giant step backwards, as UW-L held SMU to 50 points en route to the 56-50 nonconference victory.

SMU, which falls to 0-2 heading into Wednesday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener at home against Hamline, led by as many as six in the first half, but headed into the locker room at the half trailing by two, 24-22.

And it was more of the same in the second half. The game was tied 13 times, with the second free throw by UW-L's Casey Taggatz giving the Eagles the lead for good, 47-46 with 4:15 remaining. Jason Kemp added two free throws of his own to give UW-L a 49-46 advantage, but Michael Batterman (Fond du Lac, Wis.) got the Cardinals back within one, 49-48, on a jumper with 3:28 remaining.

From there, however, it was all Eagles, as UW-L scored seven of the game's final nine points to seal the win. The Eagles went to the free-throw line 12 times in the game's final six minutes, making 10 of 12 attempts.

Terrence Smith (Broadview, Ill.) scored a team-high 14 points for the Cardinals, hitting 5 of 11 attempts from the field and 4 of 5 free throws. Ryan Bormann (Preston, Iowa) was a perfect 5-for-5 from the line en route to 13 points for SMU, while Batterman finished with nine points.

Taggatz netted a game-high 18 points and Joe Bemis added 10 for UW-La Crosse (2-2 overall).