Game Summary

NORTHFIELD, Minn. — If there's one thing the Saint Mary's University men's basketball team has been rather successful at doing this season, it's bouncing back from disappointing defeats.

Which is exactly the situation the Cardinals found themselves in heading into Wednesday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game against St. Olaf.

SMU entered Wednesday's game on the heels of back-to-back losses, including a 68-58 setback to Carleton on Monday. Only one other time this season had the Cardinals lost two straight, and they responded with an 87-81 win over Northland.

And it appeared the Cardinals had an answer to their latest two-game losing skid, leading the Oles by as many as nine points in the second half.

Unfortunately, the Cardinals couldn't find a way to put the game away, and it came back to haunt them, as the Oles' Jon Bain scored the game-winning basket with 1.6 seconds remaining to lift St. Olaf to a 58-57 victory over SMU.

Terrence Smith (Broadview, Ill.) scored a team-high 14 points for the Cardinals (5-5 MIAC, 7-8 overall), while teammate John Gencius (Chicago, Ill.) chipped in 13. Bain finished with a game-high 15 points and added 11 rebounds for the Oles, who snapped a seven-game losing streak.

With the Cardinals leading 49-40, St. Olaf went on a 12-3 run to take a 52-51 lead with 3:38 remaining. Back-to-back baskets by Brensley Haywood (Joliet, Ill.) and Michael Batterman (Fond du Lac, Wis.) gave SMU a 55-52 cushion, but the Oles scored six of the game's final eight points — including Bain's layup off a pass from Steve Banick — to ice the win.