Game Summary
MOORHEAD, Minn. — With two minutes remaining in Saturday's game against Concordia, it was like Saint Mary's University men's basketball coach Mike Trewick accidentally hit the rewind button as his Cardinals were transported back to Monday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game against Carleton.
In that game, Carleton scored 23 unanswered points and went on to rout the Cardinals 64-43.
With two minutes remaining in Saturday's game against the Cobbers, SMU and Concordia were deadlocked at 27-27. When the halftime horn sounded, the Cardinals found themselves staring at a 12-point, 39-27 deficit
That's right, Concordia netted 12 points in those final two minutes — SMU, zero.
"It's been our Achilles' heel all season — teams getting on runs that we can't seem to stop," said SMU coach Mike Trewick, whose team cut the gap to five late in the second half, but could get no closer in falling, 84-79. "We played a pretty solid first half, but in those last two minutes we turned it over twice, missed a couple of field goals).
"It's tough to stay in ball games when you give teams 12-point runs like that."
Yet, that's exactly what the Cardinals did — stay in the game.
The Cardinals erupted for a season-high 52 second-half points — using a 15-3 run of their own to turn a 65-48 deficit into a 68-63 nailbiter with 5:46 remaining.
Brensley Haywood (Joliet, Ill.) hit a lay-up with 2:54 left to cut the Cobbers' lead to four, 75-71, but Concordia made nine straight free throws down the stretch to preserve the win.
"I thought we played better in the second half, we never gave up and kept battling the whole way — kind of like we did (last) Wednesday," said Trewick, whose team had notched a 64-54 win over St. Olaf last Wednesday to snap a two-game losing streak. "I was pleased with the way we played defensively, and I thought we did some good things offensively.
"We've just got to find a way to keep our opponents away from those big runs," added Trewick, who got 19 points from Michael Rohr (Bloomingdale, Ill.) and 16 from Eric Lear (Antioch, Ill.) in the loss to the Cobbers. "When they get on a run, we've got to have an answer."
