Game Summary

WINONA, Minn. — On paper, the similarities were eerily similar:

* The Saint Mary's University men's basketball team entered Saturday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game against Saint John's with a 3-2 MIAC record and a 5-5 overall mark. So did the Johnnies.

* The Cardinals were coming off their worst offensive showing of the season, managing a season-low 42 points in a 78-42 setback to Gustavus on Wednesday. SJU entered the game on the heels of a season-worst 42 points in an 82-41 loss to St. Thomas.

* SMU boasted a 3-1 record on its home court — the same as Saint John's.

* Michael Batterman (Fond du Lac, Wis.) carried a team-leading 12.3 ppg average into Saturday's game — equalled by SJU's scoring leaders Paul Henrichs and Tyler Westman.

Once on the court, however, the similarities stopped — especially in the second half.

The Cardinals scored 46 second-half points, including 11 from Michael Rohr (Bloomingdale, Ill.) and 10 from John Gencius (Chicago, Ill.), as SMU erased a six-point halftime deficit and beat the Johnnies 69-56 at the SMU Gym.

"This is a nice win, both for the team and for myself," said SMU coach Mike Trewick, who picked up his first win against the Johnnies, a team he spent nine seasons as an assistant under SJU head coach Jim Smith, before accepting the SMU position a year ago. "I kind of equate it to a young kid playing one-on-one against his dad in the driveway. The child always strives to beat his dad, and that's the way this win feels to me.

"It's great to be able to get that first win (against Saint John's), but it's also a little bittersweet in that Jim has done so much to advance my coaching career that you can't help but feel a little bad about beating him."

Trewick may feel bad about beating his former team, but the Cardinals certainly didn't.

After trailing through most of the first half — including a 29-23 deficit at the break — the Cardinals turned up the heat in the second half, taking the lead for good, 32-31, on a Rohr layup less than three minutes into the second half. SMU built a lead of nine, 47-38, midway through the half, but a 9-2 SJU run cut that cushion to one, 50-49, with 7:29 remaining.

"Our guys stuck with it today. When (Saint John's) made that run to cut the lead to one, we didn't panic, we just continued to play our game," said Trewick, whose team used a 10-1 run of its own to take a 60-50 advantage and ice the win. "We had some guys step up and knock down some big shots for us, and that's what we need if we are going to be successful."

Rohr finished with a game-high 17 points and added 11 rebounds for his first double-double of the season. Michael Batterman (Fond du Lac, Wis.) gave SMU a double-double of double-doubles, scoring 10 points and tallying 10 rebounds, while Gencius chipped in season-high 13 points.