NORTHFIELD, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University men's basketball team matched St. Olaf field goal for field goal in the game's opening 20 minutes Wednesday evening.
Over the game's final 20 minutes, however, the Oles inside-outside combination of Bobby Fong, Alfred Jaryan and Stu Neville wore the Cardinals out, as St. Olaf outscored SMU 43-37 in the second half en route to a 75-69 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory.
“(St. Olaf's) inside game just wore us out in the second half,” said SMU coach Todd Landrum, who got a career-high 21-point effort from
Chris Palmer (Faribault, Minn.) — who also chipped in 13 rebounds for his second straight double-double. “They came out on a 9-0 run to start (the second half) and we just couldn't catch up.”
Along with Palmer's game-high 21 points, the Cardinals (2-6 MIAC, 4-9 overall) also got 14 points from
Lukas Holland (La Crosse, Wis.) and 12 points from
Will Wright (Chicago, Ill.).
Neville was a perfect 8-for-8 from the field for the Oles (4-4 MIAC, 6-7 overall) en route to his 19 points, while Fong drained 6 of 11 field goals and Jaryan was 5-for-7 from the field with a pair of 3-pointers.
After battling to a 32-32 halftime tie — with each team knocking down 13 first-half field goals — the Oles took charge, scoring the first nine points of the second half to take the lead for good, 41-32. St. Olaf would push that lead to as many as 15, 63-48, with 5:18 remaining, only to have SMU claw its way to within six, 73-67. That however, would be as close as the Cardinals would get, as the two teams would trade baskets — St. Olaf's on a pair of Jaryan free throws and SMU's on a layup by Palmer — in the game's final 21 seconds.
SMU returns to action Saturday, traveling to Concordia for its fourth straight road game, taking on the Cobbers in a 3 p.m. conference contest.
