Game Summary

WINONA, Minn. — After watching his team sleepwalk through last Saturday's 81-67 loss to St. John's, Saint Mary's University men's basketball coach Mark Lovelace vowed that the Cardinals would be a different team when they took the floor against Monday against Carleton.

How right he was.

Unfortunately, while there was no lackluster effort on the Cardinals' part, there was no win, either, as St. John's scored 24 of the game's final 36 points en route to a 59-48 win over Saint Mary's at the SMU Gym.

The Cardinals (0-6 MIAC, 1-9 overall), who dropped their third straight, led 41-40 on a Terrence Smith (Broadview, Ill.) basket. That, however, would be SMU's last lead, as St. John's capitalized on back-to-back Cardinal turnovers to take a 44-41 lead, and built it to 51-43 with 4:10 remaining. The Cardinals cut the Johnnies' lead down to five with 3:10 remaining in regulation, but that was a close as they would get as SJU used an 8-2 game-ending run to hold its biggest lead of the game when the buzzer sounded.

Smith was the lone Cardinal to score in double figures, as the sophomore forward netted 11 points on 5 of 6 shooting from the field. Anthony Baquero scored a game-high 14 points for the Knights, who also got double-figure scoring from Dan Forkrud (13 points), Tanner Schieck (12 points) and Kyle Beste (10 points).

After shooting 45 percent (9-for-20) from the field in the first half, the Cardinals' hot hands turned ice cold in the second, hitting just 5 of 21 field goals, and getting 10 of their 21 second-half points from the free-throw line. Carleton didn't fare much better from the field, shooting 28 percent for the game (11-for-39)., but the Knights took advantage of 45 trips to the free-throw line, where they converted on 35 attempts.