Game Summary vs. St. Olaf / GameDay Online

NORTHFIELD, Minn. — Saint Mary's University men's basketball coach Todd Landrum knew exactly who to point the finger at for Saturday's 55-47 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference loss to St. Olaf.

The Oles.

“Give St. Olaf all the credit in the world, they played a great game and they deserved to win — today, they were the better team,” Landrum said, after watching the Oles clamp down on SMU's high-scoring pair of Will Wright (Chicago, Ill.) and Lukas Holland (La Crosse, Wis.), who were limited to a combined 19 points. “They played great defense on us and really shut us down offensively.”

The Cardinals, who were looking to salvage a conference split against the Oles — having dropped a 71-67 decision vs. St. Olaf in their first meeting on Jan. 17 — could not find their shooting touch Saturday.

SMU made just 8 of 26 field goal attempts in the opening 20 minutes, heading into the locker room at the half staring at a seven-point, 28-21, deficit.

And, unfortunately for Landrum, his Cardinals' shooting touch didn't get any warmer in the second half. SMU went 6-for-26 from the field — and missed all eight of its 3-pointers — as St. Olaf pushed its lead to as many as 15, 40-25, then held off a late-game Cardinal rally to snap its seven-game losing streak.

Wright finished with a team-high 17 points for the Cardinals, while Pat Freeman (Champlin, Minn.) chipped in 10 points. St. Olaf's Nate Krosschell led all scorers with 18 points.

“It was not a good shooting night for us,” said Landrum, whose team plays its final road game of the season Wednesday at Concordia, before returning home for its season finale against Augsburg next Saturday. “I thought we played pretty well defensively — we held them to 55 points and outrebounded them (38-37). We've just got to do a little better job on the other end.”