WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary’s University men’s basketball team gave St. Thomas all it could handle Monday evening at the SMU Gym, but the Tommies opened up a 44-23 halftime advantage and held off the Cardinals down the stretch en route to an 82-70 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory.
The Cardinals got off to a slow start, and against the league-leading Tommies, that’s not what coach Todd Landrum was hoping for, as UST built a 21-point halftime edge and never let the Cardinals close that gap en route to their 18th win of the season.
The Tommies knocked down 20 of their 22 free throws — including a perfect 13-for-13 performance from Alex Healy, who finished with a team-high 21 points — while SMU was just 20 of 30 from the line.
“Regardless of their free throw record, we were not going to back off,” said Landrum. “We are an aggressive team and gave them four opportunities at the line within the last two minutes.
“We shot more free throws than them but unfortunately missed 10 which is unusual for us,” said Landrum. “We are a good shooting team."
Will Wright (Chicago, Ill.) scored a game-high 26 points for the Cardinals, while
Chris Palmer (Faribault, Minn.) added 13.
Lukas Holland (La Crosse, Wis.) chipped in eight points — including a jumper 1:01 into the first half that gave the SMU junior his 1,000th career point.
“We fought hard tonight — especially in the second half,” said Landrum, “Saint Thomas knows they’re good, but we earned their respect."
The Cardinals, who fall to 5-10 in the MIAC and 7-13 overall, are back in action on Wednesday, when they hit the road for a 7:45 p.m. conference contest at Carleton.