By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director

DECORAH, Iowa — The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota men's basketball team found themselves playing catch-up from the opening tip of their nonconference game against Luther Saturday afternoon.
 
The host Norse proved to be rather ungracious hosts, scoring the game's first 10 points—and 13 of the first 15—as Luther handed the Cardinals a 85-59 setback at Regents Center.
 
Despite falling behind 10-0 and 13-2, the Cardinals continued to whittle away at the Luther lead, but each time they made a little progress, the Norse would answer.
 
Trailing 13-2, Saint Mary's trimmed the lead to five on two separate occasions, and, thanks to a Kristjan Meitz (Waukesha, Wis.) 3-pointer, were trailing by just six, 29-23, with 6:38 remaining in the opening half.
 
Luther, however, answered with back-to-back 3-pointers as part of a 13-3 run and the Norse would push their advantage to 20, 47-27 on a 3-pointer by Ray Whitlock in the final seconds of the first half.
 
And Saint Mary's could not gain any traction over the game's final 20 minutes, as Luther pulled away, building leads as big as 30, 84-54, before settling for the 26-point win.
 
David Lindstrand (Lakeville, Minn.) led the way for Cardinals, going 5-for-6 from the field and adding a 3-for-5 effort from the free throw line for a team-best 13 points. Meitz chipped in 10 and Kareem Anthony-Bello (Chicago, Ill.) added nine.
 
Saint Mary's shot 36 percent from the field (20-for-55)—but were just 6 of 21 from the 3-point line—and finished 13-for-22 from the free throw line. Luther, meanwhile, hit on 51 percent of its field goal attempts (30-for-59)—including 11 of 25 from behind the arc—and went 14-for-19 from the charity stripe.
 
The Norse had 12 players score at least one point, led by James Kappus with 20, Jared Nicolaisen with 13, and Rahul Bagga with 12.
 
The Cardinals (1-1 overall) are back on the road on Tuesday, as Saint Mary's heads across town to Winona State's McCown Gymnasium for an 8 p.m. exhibition game against the NCAA Division II Warriors.