WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University men's basketball team hoped all it would take to get back on the winning track would be a little home cooking.
 
Crown, however, refused to following the recipe.
 
The Polars, boosted by a 45-point first-half, rained on the Cardinals' home-opening parade Wednesday evening, dealing Saint Mary's an 81-64 nonconference setback at the Saint Mary's Gym.
 
Breyton Buysman (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) came out on fire for the Cardinals, scoring SMU's first nine points. The Polars, however, were equally as hot from the field, using a 7-0 run to grab an eight-point, 17-9 lead with 14:22 to play.
 
SMU responded with an 8-0 run of its own — including back-to-back 3-pointers by Bailey McDonald (Minneapolis, Minn.) and Khai Branham (Bemidji, Minn.) — to knot the game at 17-17 midway through the opening 20-minute period.
 
Just as quickly as the score was tied, however, the Polars untied it, scoring five unanswered points to jump-start a 28-6 burst that gave Crown its biggest lead of the half, 45-23, with less than two minutes to play in the opening half.
 
Bruce Lockwood (Shakopee, Minn.), Buysman, and Cameron Mallory (Joliet, Ill.) all knocked down jumpers in the final two minutes to pull the Cardinals with 16, 45-29 at the break.
 
The opening two minutes of the second half had all the makings of a track meet, with both teams knocking down back-to-back 3-pointers in their first two possessions — the Cardinals' treys coming from Jabari Sawyer (Chicago, Ill.) and Mallory, while Jacob Van Dam and Cade Carroll drained treys for the Polars, leaving SMU staring at a 51-35 deficit.
 
The Cardinals chipped away at the Polar lead, whittling it down to 10 twice in the first 10 minutes of the second stanza, before clawing within eight, 64-56 on a pair of Sawyer free throws with 7:55 on the clock.
 
Over the next two minutes, however, Crown rattled off nine unanswered points, and the Polars' lead had ballooned back to 17, 73-56. And this time, the Cardinals had no answer, as Crown maintained its double-digit lead over the final five minutes to seal its second win of the season.
 
Mallory and Buysman each finished with 17 points to pace the Cardinals' offensive attack, while Sawyer chipped in 10 points. As a team, Saint Mary's shot 45.3 percent from the field (24-for-53), with six 3-pointers, and added a 10 of 15 showing from the free throw line.
 
Crown — which snapped a six-game losing streak against the Cardinals — put four players in double figures, led by Tyrus Buckner with a game-high 20 points, while Cade Carroll added a double-double of 15 points and 10 rebounds. The Polars went 33-for-64 (51.6 %) from the field, and were deadly from behind the 3-point line, burying 12 of 22 3-point attempts.
 
The Cardinals (0-3 overall) are back in action — and back on their home court — on Saturday, when they welcome UW-River Falls to the SMU Gym for a 3 p.m. nonconference matchup.
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