WINONA, Minn. — Coming off one of its most impressive offensive performances of the season, the Saint Mary's University men's basketball team was hoping for a repeat performance Saturday afternoon.
The Cardinals could not get their offense in sync, and fell to Concordia 74-66 in a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game at the SMU Gym.
“We were way too inconsistent,” SMU coach Todd Landrum said. “We had our chances, but we didn't do a great job defensively or on the boards.”
The Cardinals traded baskets early on with the Cobbers, but Concordia went on a 10-2 run midway through the first half to take a 27-18 lead.
With three minutes remaining however, the Cardinals showed signs of life.
Trailing 33-24, Saint Mary's went on an 11-2 run, getting nine points from
Will Wright, including a three at the buzzer, to tie the game at 35 heading into the break.
“We got into halftime, and were actually pretty happy because we didn't play well at all in the first half, but we were still tied,” Landrum said. “We made some stops and converted on the other end and put ourselves in a good position.”
SMU continued to ride that momentum in the second half, coming out of the break on an 8-0 run to put them ahead 43-35.
Just a few minutes later, however, Concordia turned the tide.
Down 47-41 the Cobbers went on a 15-3 run, getting nine points from Karl Olson, and took a 56-50 lead.
The Cobbers slowly kept building on their lead, and with just five minutes remaining in the game, they were up 67-56.
Concordia then sealed the win in an unusual fashion.
Up 69-59 with 3:30 remaining, the Cobbers ran down the shot clock three times on one possession, getting the offensive rebound on each miss, along with a fresh 35 seconds to work with.
By the time SMU got the ball back, they had just 1:30 to overcome a 10 point deficit.
Will Wright (Chicago, Ill.) hit a layup with 1:20 left to pull within eight, but that was as close as the Cardinals would get.
Wright finished the day with 21 points, while
Chris Palmer (Faribault, Minn.) added 14 for the Cardinals. John Fraase led the Cobbers with 25 points and 14 rebounds, and Karl Olson chipped in 17.
The Cardinals close out their home schedule on Wednesday, playing host to St. Olaf in a 7:30 p.m. conference game, before ending their season at Augsburg (7:45 p.m.) on Friday.
