WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota men's basketball team played in front of its home crowd for the first time this season on Saturday—and the Cardinal faithful did not go home disappointed.
 
Quashingm Smith-Pugh (St. Paul, Minn.) and Wylie Ferron (Waconia, Minn.) ignited a second-half onslaught that led the Cardinals to their second win in as many games, as Saint Mary's beat visiting Luther 74-62 in a nonconference game at the Saint Mary's Gym.
 
Smith-Pugh poured in a game-high 16 points and added 11 rebounds for his second double-double of the season, while Ferron chipped in 15 points—13 coming in the second half—as the Cardinals broke open a one-point game by outscoring the Norse 43-32 over the game's final 20 minutes.
 
It took Saint Mary's nearly the entire first half to finally play with a lead, but once they did, the Cardinals weren't about to relinquish it.
 
Luther jumped out to a 10-point, 20-10 lead on a Jared Nicolaisen 3-pointer with nine minutes remaining in the game's opening half, but the deficit did not faze the Cardinals one bit, as Saint Mary's used a 21-8 run—capped by a Kevin Gleason (Minneapolis, Minn.) 3-pointer—to take a 31-28 lead with just over two minutes remaining.
 
The Norse would cut the deficit to one, 31-30, at the break, but Saint Mary's took control early in the second half, riding a 27-12, half-opening burst to grab its biggest lead of the game, 58-42 with 11 minutes to play.
 
Luther whittled the lead to five, 61-56, but the Cardinals went 6-for-7 from the free throw line down the stretch to seal the win.
 
Saint Mary's shot 40 percent from the field (24-for-60) and rained in 10 3-pointers, while going a near-perfect 16-for-19 from the free throw line. Luther, meanwhile, hit on 42 percent of its field goal attempts (23-for-55), but the Norse were just 7 of 16 from behind the arc and 9-for-14 from the free throw line.
 
Along with the double-figure efforts of Smith-Pugh and Ferron, the Cardinals also got nine points from both Cole Kruger (Hayfield, Minn.), Aaron Romportl (Stillwater, Minn.), Bradley Hill (Matteson, Ill.), and Gleason.
 
Nicolaisen and Kevin Stafford each scored 12 points in the losing effort for Luther, which falls to 0-4 on the year.
 
The Cardinals (2-0 overall) are right back in action on Monday, traveling to Indianola, Iowa, for a 7 p.m. nonconference game against Simpson, before returning home on Wednesday to kick off Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play with a 7 p.m. matchup with Carleton at the Saint Mary's Gym.