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WINONA, Minn. — Saint Mary's University men's basketball coach Todd Landrum summed up his team's performance against Saint John's Saturday afternoon in one word: Disappointing.

The Cardinals were coming off a heartbreaking, 66-59 loss to Gustavus on Wednesday — a game in which the Gusties were a perfect 6-for-6 from the free throw line in the final minute — and earned high marks for their effort in the seven-point loss.

Saturday afternoon at the SMU Gym, however, Landrum wasn't dishing out too many A's for effort.

“After the outstanding all-around performance against Gustavus, everyone is disappointed in our effort and performance today,” said Landrum, whose team dropped an 83-62 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference decision to the Johnnies at the SMU Gym. “We had the opportunity to play in front of an enthusiastic crowd and weren't able to give them the type of performance they deserved.

“This was a disappointing loss.”

The Cardinals kept pace with the Johnnies early, before SJU — which shot 62 percent from the field in the opening 20 minutes — used a 19-11 run over the final 11:50 of the first half to take a 38-25 advantage into the locker room at the break.

The Johnnies continued their torrid shooting in the second half, building their lead to 22, 64-42, and the Cardinals were never able to cut into the deficit over the game's final nine minutes.

 Will Wright (Chicago, Ill.) scored a team-high 16 points, while Lukas Holland (La Crosse, Wis.) chipped in 15 for the Cardinals, who got scoring from nine different players. SMU shot 44 percent from the field (21-for-48), but struggled from the 3-point line, where the Cardinals were just 4 of 16.

“We had some guys come off the bench who played very well,” said Landrum, whose team is back in action Monday, traveling to St. Paul, Minn., for a 7:30 p.m. contest against No. 1-ranked and unbeaten St. Thomas. “It was good to see our bench perform the way it did.”