WINONA, Minn. — After opening the season with games against NCAA Division I Northern Illinois and defending NCAA Division II national champion Winona State, the Saint Mary's University men's basketball team finally got to pick on someone their own size Saturday evening at the SMU Gym.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, it was the Blugolds that fit the role of the bully to perfection.

UW-Eau Claire took advantage of the Cardinals' ice-cold second-half shooting to turn a four-point halftime advantage into a runaway, as the Blugolds handed SMU it second straight loss with a 78-65 nonconference win at the SMU Gym.

"It's not to tough to figure this one out — we've got to make shots, it's that simple," said SMU coach Mike Trewick, whose team was coming off a 98-54 loss to Winona State on Friday. "The frustrating part was, we were getting good shots — we were getting the ball into the hands of the people we wanted to shoot — we just weren't knocking them down.

"And against a team like Eau Claire, or any team for that matter, if you don't make your shots, it's pretty tough to win."

The two teams traded punches for the game's opening 20 minutes, as SMU led by as many as three, while the Blugolds held the biggest lead of the half, 38-31 on a basket by Troy Holewinski with 1:23 remaining. The Cardinals responded with a half-ending 5-2 run to cut the deficit to four, 40-36 at the break.

That, however, was as close as SMU would get, as the Cardinals missed failed to score on their first 11 trips down the court in the second half, missing nine field goal attempts and turning the ball over on two other occasions.

Fortunately for the Cardinals, UW-Eau Claire was equally as frigid in the early going. When Michael Batterman (Fond du Lac, Wis.) finally got a Cardinal field goal to fall six minutes into the half, SMU was only trailing by seven, 46-39.

Batterman's bucket didn't do much to ignite the SMU offense, but it certainly lit a fire under the Blugolds, who used a 21-13 run to grab a 15-point cushion, 69-54, with 2:39 remaining. Dan Cormier (Blaine, Minn.) completed a three-point play to cut the gap to 12, 71-59, but that was as close as SMU would get, as UW-Eau Claire cruised to its fourth straight win vs. the Cardinals.

"We're getting there," said Trewick, whose team opens conference play on Wednesday at St. Thomas. "We've played three very tough teams, and I think we've learned a lot from each game. Nobody likes to start out the season with three straight losses, but it's been a valuable learning experience for our younger guys.

"Sure, we could have scheduled a couple of games against teams we knew we could beat, but what good would that have done us? Sure, maybe we'd be 2-1 right now, but I don't think we'd be as well off as we are right now.

"Our goal is to keep getting better every day, and so far, I think we've done that."