WINONA, Minn. — In his first three games against Macalester, Saint Mary's University men's basketball team has watched his Cardinals go down to the wire — all three times — before pulling out a victory each time.
There was the 67-65 win in their first meeting under Landrum on Dec. 3, 2008.
The Cardinals then needed overtime to get past the Scots 70-65 on Jan. 21, 2009 in the team's second meeting a year ago.
And in their MIAC opener this season, SMU again held off the Scots down the stretch to post a 70-67 triumph.
Wednesday evening, the Cardinals decided to take it easy on their head coach — which may have been good news for Landrum, but it certainly wasn't for Macalester.
SMU scored the game's first 10 points and never looked back, getting a game-high 24 points from
Chris Palmer (Faribault, Minn.) and 21 more from
Will Wright (Chicago, Ill.) in a convincing 78-60 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference win at the SMU Gym.
“Macalester has always played us tough,” said Landrum, whose team improved to 4-7 in the MIAC and 6-10 overall. “I know they are in last place, but they look at us as a team they can beat, and for us to control the game from start to finish was very important.
“I was real pleased with our performance. It was a good win.”
Good doesn't quite sum up the performances of Palmer, Wright and
Lukas Holland (La Crosse, Wis.), who gave the Scots fits all night.
The trio accounted for 64 of the team's 78 points — including the first 24 points of the second half, as SMU pushed its 15-point halftime lead to as many as 24 over the game's final 20 minutes en route to their fourth straight win over the Scots.
Along with Palmer's 24 and Wright's 21, Holland chipped in 19 points and a team-leading seven rebounds.
“Those three are proven offensive performers in this league,” Landrum said of his high-powered trio. “Now we have to find some more to go with them to keep growing as a program. We've grown a little, because now we have another scorer.”
Paul Richie led four Macalester players in double figures, finishing with 14 points, while Jerry Krause added 12 points, and Mark Smedley and Kyle Hamblett chipped in 11 and 10 points, respectively.
The Cardinals are back in action on Saturday, traveling to Bethel for a 3 p.m. conference contest against the Royals.
