WINONA, Minn. — The last time the Saint Mary's University men's basketball team squared off against UW-La Crosse, the Eagles were sporting a No. 7 national ranking and a near-perfect, 9-1 season-opening record.
And the Cardinals came away with an 82-76 victory.
There were no national rankings or one-loss seasons when the Cardinals and Eagles took to the court on Wednesday — and, unfortunately for Saint Mary's, there would be no second straight SMU victory.
UW-La Crosse raced out to a 14-point halftime deficit — and extended that advantage to as many as 26 — as the Eagles dealt the Cardials a 74-59 nonconference setback at the Saint Mary's Gym.
The Cardinals and Eagles found themselves on opposite ends of the offensive spectrum to open the game. UW-L opened 3-for-3 with a pair of 3-pointers, while the Cardinals struggled to an 9-0-for-4 showing, as the Eagles opened an 8-0 lead.
Jabari Sawyer (Chicago, Ill.) and
Breyton Buysman (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) would end the SMU drought with field goals, but the Eagles continued to sizzle from deep, adding two more 3-pointers for a 14-4 advantage less than four minutes into the first half.
Saint Mary's trimmed the UW-L lead to four, 14-10, only to have Eagles respond with seven unanswered points and an 11-point, 21-10 lead with 12:29 to play until halftime. UW-L built its first-half lead to 13 on three separate occasions, before getting a pair of free throws from Jake Gross to take its largest lead of the half, 40-26, heading into the break.
UW-La Crosse picked up where it left off after the intermission, scoring the first six points to extend its lead to 20, 46-26 just two minutes into the second half.
Owen Ziegler (Mount Horeb, Wis.) netted SMU's first three second-half field goals — all 3-pointers — but the Eagles once again had an answer, scoring 11 of the next 13 points, as their lead grew to 26, 63-37, with 12:59 to play
SMU would outscore the Eagles 22-11 over the final 13 minutes, but it wasn't nearly enough.
Ziegler closed out the game as the only Cardinal in double figures, scoring 13 points on 4 of 10 shooting — all 3-pointers — while adding a solo free throw in his only trip to the line. As a team, Saint Mary's shot 38.6 percent from the field (22-for-57, but were just 6 of 18 from beyond the arc, and added a 9 of 16 effort from the free throw line.
The Cardinals (2-9 overall) are now off until Jan. 3, when they kick off the 2024 portion of their schedule with a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game against Augsburg. Opening tip at the Saint Mary's Gym is slated for 7 p.m.
