Game Summary

RIVER FOREST, Ill. — It took a little longer than anyone had hoped, but the Saint Mary's University men's basketball team finally gave first-year head coach Mike Trewick his first collegiate victory Sunday afternoon.

Gift-wrapped for the holidays.

Dan Kloak (Elmwood Park, Ill.) scored a game-high 18 points and the Cardinals rode a 33-21 fist-half lead to a 61-50 triumph — and win No. 1 for Trewick.

"This was such a big win — for everyone," said Trewick. "Everyone has worked so hard all season, but they never got that final result for their effort. (Against Dominican) the guys finally got a much-deserved win for their efforts."

But it wasn't easy.

The Cardinals, who opened the season with seven straight losses, trailed by as many as six early in the first half, but SMU used a 7-0 run to take the lead for good, 15-14 on a basket by Eric Lear (Antioch, Ill.) — and the Cardinals never looked back, outscoring Dominican 16-2 over the next nine minutes to take its biggest lead of the half, 31-16.

But Dominican made things interesting, narrowing the gap to two, 48-46, on a basket by Bernie Talian, but that was as close as the Cardinals would let them get as they used a 13-4 game-ending run to ice the win.

Lear tallied 13 points and Fiore Buccieri (Riverside, Ill.) netted 11 to join Kloak as double-figure scorers for the Cardinals, who shot 43 percent from the field and made 19 of their 23 free throws.

"I thought we played really well (Saturday) — just not well enough to win," said Trewick, referring to Saturday's 89-79 loss to Benedictine. "It's great to finally get that monkey off our backs."

According to Trewick, it's amazing what a win like Sunday's can do to the Cardinals' memory – season opening seven-game losing streak? What losing streak?

"These guys have played well enough to win on a number of occasions, but they could never get over the hump," Trewick said. "(Sunday) we got over the hump, and now the guys can go into the Christmas break feeling good about themselves.

"We're not thinking about (the seven-game losing streak) anymore — now all our thoughts are on putting together our first winning streak."