Game Summary

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Three weeks ago, the Saint Mary's University men's basketball team found itself right in the thick of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference playoff chase.

Fresh off back-to-back wins over Saint John's and Hamline, the Cardinals were 5-2 in the MIAC and appeared to be a shoo-in to be among the six teams still playing after the regular-season ended.

Then the Cardinals' bubble burst.

SMU dropped eight of its next 10 conference games — including a heartbreaking 80-76 loss to Hamline Wednesday evening — and suddenly found its MIAC playoff hopes on life support.

With three games remaining in the regular season, the Cardinals are tied with St. Olaf for seventh with seven wins — one win back of Bethel and two back of Hamline. SMU plays host to league-leading St. Thomas on Saturday, before closing out the regular-season at second-place Carleton next Wednesday and at home against St. Olaf on Saturday.

The road which seemed so smooth less than a month ago, has suddenly been filled with potholes.

Brensley Haywood (Joliet, Ill.) led the Cardinals' attack against Hamline Wednesday, netting 16 points, while Terrence Smith (Broadview, Ill.) added 14 and Michael Rohr (Bloomington, Ill.) and Fiore Buccieri (Riverside, Ill.) each chipped in 12.

But just wasn't enough as the Cardinals dropped their seventh straight road game.

The Cardinals led by as many as 12, 27-15 midway through the first half, but the Pipers stormed back, scoring 23 of the final 30 first-half points to take a 35-32 lead into the locker room at the intermission.

It was Hamline that grabbed the upper hand early in the second half, pushing their lead to 12, 46-34 with 16:16 remaining. SMU pulled even on four separate occasions, the final time at 62-62 with 8:29 to go, but the Pipers scored eight straight points and never trailed by less than four the rest of the way in icing the win.