Game Summary

WINONA, Minn. — They scratched, they clawed, they fought to the finish.

Yet, not matter how hard the Saint Mary's University men's basketball team tried, they just couldn't seem to get over the hump in Wednesday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener against Hamline at the SMU Gym.

SMU shook off a 17-2 first-half run by the Pipers, they overcame an 11-point second-half deficit, and they had three chances in the game's final minute to take the lead.

But when the final horn sounded, the Cardinals' gallant effort wasn't enough as Hamline escaped with a 58-55 victory.

"The guys played hard — they never got down and they kept battling the whole game," said SMU coach Mark Lovelace, whose team dropped to 0-3 with the loss. "Our biggest problem right now is, when things aren't going quite the way we want, we try to do too much — we get away from the things we do well and we try to improvise.

"If we are going to turn this thing around, we need to make sure we stick to the game plan."

The game plan seemed to work early, as SMU jumped out to a 14-7 lead early in the first half, only to have Hamline responded with a 7-0 run that tied the game at 14-14 — and propelled the Pipers on a 17-2 run that gave them a 24-16 lead late in the half. SMU scored seven of the next 11 points to pull within five, 28-23, at the half.

Hamline came out smoking in the second half, building their lead to as many as 11 before the Cardinals rallied. SMU whittled the Pipers lead to four, 42-38, with 11 minutes remaining, then got as close as two, 52-50, on a Todd Yankowski (Chicago, Ill.) three-pointer with 3:40 remaining. A bucket by SMU's Michael Batterman (Fond du Lac, Wis.) made it a one-point game, 54-53, but Hamline scored the next three to give the Pipers a 57-53 lead with 33 seconds on the clock.

Batterman, who finished with a team-high 13 points, scored his final basket to cut the Hamline lead to two, 57-55, but a pair of free throws by Josh Hanson and a missed three-pointer by SMU's Dan Kloak (Elmwood Park, Ill.) sealed the Cardinals' fate.

"I know I keep sounding like a broken record, but the guys played hard — unfortunately, they weren't able to get a 'W" for their efforts," said Lovelace. "Hamline is a better team than La Crosse (which beat SMU 56-50 last Saturday), and we took (the Pipers) right to the wire. That should say something to these guys.

"We're getting closer."