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Game Summary / GameDay Online

NORTHFIELD, Minn. — It took a lot longer than coach Mike Trewick would have liked, but the Saint Mary's University men's basketball team finally notched its first win of the season Saturday.

And they made it look easy.

The Cardinals had four players score in double figures — including a game- and career-high 31 points from freshman Will Wright (Chicago, Ill.) — as SMU rolled to an 89-75 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory over St. Olaf.

"It's nice to finally get that first win out of the way," said Trewick, whose team snapped its season-opening nine-game losing streak — the longest season-opening slide since SMU dropped its first 11 games to open the 1996-97 season. "The guys have hung together through a tough stretch and hopefully this is just the tip of the iceberg for us.

"We knew when the season started that the start of the year was going to be tough," added Trewick, noting that three of his club's five nonconference games were against NCAA Division I or II teams — including NCAA Division I Loyola-Chicago, not to mention Winona State, the NCAA Division II national champion two years ago, and the national runner-up last season. "Our goal for the first semester was to keep building and keep striving to get better every day, and I think we accomplished that.

"Now, hopefully, we can just keep on rolling."

The Cardinals certainly found themselves on a roll Saturday, as SMU scored 12 of the game's first 16 points, and built leads as big as 17, before settling for a 14-point, 45-31, advantage at the half.

It was more of the same in the second half, as SMU pushed their lead to 25, 66-41, on a 3-pointer by Mario Allen (Chicago, Ill.). The Oles tried to make things  interesting, outscoring the Cardinals 34-23 over the final 14 minutes, but it wasn't nearly enough, as the Cardinals notched their first win since an 80-68 victory over Augsburg on Feb. 10, 2007.

Along with Wright's 31-point effort, the Cardinals also got 16 points from Lukas Holland (La Crosse, Wis.), 13 from Mikey Sweeney (St. Paul, Minn.) and 11 from Josh Knights (Plainfield, Wis.). Bobby Hunter netted a team-best 18 points in the losing effort for St. Olaf.

"I think the Chicago trip (to face Loyola on Dec. 29) really helped us come together as a team," said Trewick, whose team will go for two straight Monday evening, when they travel to Gustavus for a 7:30 p.m. conference game. "Everything seems to be falling into place.

"We're not going to get too excited over one win, but it is nice to finally get that monkey off our backs."