ST. PAUL, Minn. — There's no place like home — just ask the Saint Mary's University men's basketball team.

The Cardinals entered Wednesday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game at Hamline having lost 13 straight road games and won just once in 15 road games since the beginning of last season.

The road has not a friendly place for the Cardinals — until Wednesday.

Dan Cormier (Blaine, Minn.) scored a game- and career-high 25 points — including the game-winner with eight seconds remaining as SMU rallied from six points down in the game's final two-and-a-half minutes to beat Hamline 89-87.

"It's nice to get that monkey off our backs," said Trewick, whose team had now won a road game since a 61-56 win at Augsburg on Dec. 3, 2005. "The whole (road) losing streak was more a mental thing than anything else. It's tough to play on the road, but for some reason we just struggled more than most teams — it was one of those things that just seemed to snowball all (last season)."

The Cardinals trailed by as many as 20 in the first half, before settling for an 11-point, 52-41 deficit at the break — and they were staring still staring at an 87-81 deficit with 2:41 remaining in regulation. John Gencius (Chicago, Ill.) and Mikey Sweeney (St. Paul, Minn.) drilled back-to-back 3-pointers to knot the game at 87-87, and, after a pair of missed free throws from Brad Brake, Cormier knocked down a jumper to ice the win.

A road win that Trewick is hoping won't be such a rarity in the future.

"This was a nice win, because it got us to 2-2 (in the MIAC) heading into the Christmas break — and puts us right in the middle of the pack," said Trewick, whose team will travel to Minnesota State-Mankato for a nonconference team, before breaking for the holidays. "We said after the Macalester game (an 81-73 win on Monday that snapped a season-opening four-game losing streak) that this team is still learning how to win — tonight's game was another step in the learning process."