ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University men's basketball team boasted three players scoring in double figures Wednesday evening against Hamline, but the trio's combined 40 points weren't enough to overcome an ice-cold first-half shooting performance, as the Pipers handed SMU a 93-57 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference setback at Hutton Arena.
“We just couldn't get on track tonight,” said SMU coach Todd Landrum. “We came out slow and were never able to recover.”
Will Wright (Chicago, Ill.) tossed in a team-high 17 points for the Cardinals (2-4 MIAC, 4-7 overall), while
Chris Palmer (Faribault, Minn.) chipped in 13 points and
Thomas Sims (Eagan, Minn.) recorded a career-best 10 points.
Carl Hipp finished with a game-high 20 points, while Ray Brown added a double-double-double of 12 points and 12 rebounds. Dan Andersen and Noah Aguirre also scored in double figures for the Pipers (4-3 MIAC, 8-4 overall), netting 12 and 11 points, respectively.
The Pipers, who shot 58 percent from the field in the opening half, scored the game's first 13 points and never looked back, boasting a 23-point, 42-19 halftime advantage, before outscoring the Cardinals 51-38 over the game's final 20 minutes.
The Cardinals are now off until Monday, when they travel to St. Paul, Minn., for a conference showdown with St. Thomas in a game that was originally scheduled for Dec. 9, but was postponed due to a December snowstorm.
