By
DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
WINONA, Minn. — Saint John's headed into Wednesday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game against the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota men's basketball team sitting fourth in the nation in field goal percentage — while leading all of NCAA Division III in 3-point shooting.
Yet, the Cardinals held the high-powered and nationally ranked Johnnies to just two field goals in their first 11 attempts — and SJU made just one of its eight first-half 3-point attempts, that coming just before the halftime buzzer.
Unfortunately, once they found their rhythm, the Johnnies were virtually unstoppable — hitting 20 of their final 27 first-half field goal attempts — and the Cardinals could not keep pace, falling to 19
th-ranked Saint John's 87-70 at the Saint Mary's Gym.
With Saint John's struggling to find its shooting touch early, Saint Mary's grabbed leads of 4-2, 7-4, and 12-8.
The Johnnies, however, rattled off six unanswered points to grab a 14-12 lead — and SJU would not trail the rest of the game, building its lead to as many as 16 on three separate occasions in the opening 20 minutes — including 46-30 at the break.
It was more of the same in the second half, as Saint John's drained 14 of its 23 field goals and was 12-for-14 from the free throw line. The Cardinals did their best to keep pace — pouring in six second-half 3-pointers among their 15 field goals — but could get no closer than 13 points over the game's final 20 minutes.
Eli Cave (St. Paul, Minn.) — the reigning MIAC Athlete of the Week — scored 12 of his team-high 16 points in the second half, while
Sawyer Rosner (Phelps, Wis.) chipped in 12 points, and
Kevin Gleason (Minneapolis, Minn.) and
Jakob Bailey (Cameron, Wis.) each added 11.
Ethan Novacinski led the way for the Johnnies, scoring a game-high 29 points, while Jubie Alade (18), David Stokman (14), and Lucas Walford (11) also scored in double figures for the Johnnies (4-0 MIAC, 7-1 overall).
The Cardinals (2-3 MIAC, 5-4 overall) are now off until Dec. 29, when they travel to Chicago, Ill., for a 4 p.m. nonconference game against North Park.
