WINONA, Minn. — Before the season started, Saint Mary's University men's basketball coach Todd Landrum promised that his Cardinals would be exciting this season.
If Sunday's season opener against the University of Dubuque is any indication, Landrum wasn't kidding — his Cardinals are exciting.
And good.
Very good.
The Cardinals had five players score in double figures — led by
Lukas Holland's (La Crosse, Wis.) game-high 25 points, as SMU kicked off its 2009-2010 season with a 73-62 nonconference win over the Spartans at the SMU Gym.
“The first game's always tough — you don't have any time to prepare for a specific team because it's your first and it's your opponent's first game,” said Landrum. “I thought we adjusted pretty well, except for their pressure, which we worked on at practice, but struggled a bit with it today.
“I was very proud of the guys' effort, they did a nice job of taking care of the basketball, rebounding, hitting shots when we had them … ,” Landrum added. “It's always nice to start out the season with a win.”
After the game's opening 20 minutes, it looked like the Cardinals would cruise to that first win of the season, as SMU held leads as big as 15 points, before settling for a 13-point, 38-25 advantage at the break.
It was more of the same early in the second half, as the Cardinals scored 12 of the first 18 points to open the second half, turning that 13-point halftime advantage into a commanding 19-point, 50-31 cushion. The Spartans, however, would respond, whittling the lead down to five, 62-57, with 2:57 remaining in regulation.
Wright drained a pair of free throws and drilled a jumper to make it a 66-57 Cardinal lead, before Holland bombed one of his two 3-pointers, then iced the win with a bucket from the top of the key and a pair of free throws to put SMU's lead back to 14 with 48 seconds on the clock.
Holland was near-perfect en route to his 25 points, hitting 7 of 9 field goals — including 2-for-2 from behind the 3-point line — while also knocking down all nine of his free throws. Wright and
Pat Freeman (Champlin Park, Minn.) each chipped in 12 points, while
Chris Palmer (Faribault, Minn.) tossed in 11 points, and missed his first collegiate double-double — in his first collegiate game — by one rebound.
Taylor Blum scored 24 points and Josh Bellaire added 12 in the losing effort for the Spartans (0-1 overall).
“I told the guys before the game that I didn't need to give them any type of speech, because they were playing a team with a different color jersey on,” joked Landrum, whose team is back in action — and back at home — on Wednesday, playing host to UW-La Crosse in a 7:30 p.m. game at the SMU Gym. “We needed to play a game — whether we were ready or not, we needed to play.
“And I thought the guys responded. It was a good day for our basketball program.”
