WINONA, Minn. — After six weeks of preparation, the Saint Mary's University men's basketball team was champing at the bit in anticipation for Friday's season-opener against UW-La Crosse.

The Cardinals couldn't wait to take the floor — and it showed.

For a half.

SMU raced out to a commanding 12-point, 42-30 halftime advantage — thanks in part to a blistering 55 percent shooting performance that included 6 of 8 3-pointers.

Unfortunately, as good as the Cardinals were in the first half, they were equally as bad in the second half, managing just 21 points on 7 of 19 shooting (36 percent) as UW-La Crosse rallied from that 12-point deficit to beat the Cardinals 66-63.

"We played such a great first half — we played with high intensity, we were making good decisions with the basketball, we were shooting the ball well … ," said SMU coach Bob Biebel. "It was exactly what we were hoping for."

Then there was the second half.

"It was like night and day," Biebel said. "We shot terribly in the second half — especially from the free throw line (where SMU made just 5 of 13 attempts). La Crosse hit their shots when they needed them, and we didn't, that was the bottom line."


Lance Larson (Lakeville, Minn.) led the Cardinals' offensive attack, scoring 22 points. Nick Michaels (Dyer, Ind.) and Ryan Wilt (Naperville, Ill.) were also in double figures for SMU, scoring 12 and 10 points, respectively.

"We did some nice things," admitted Biebel, finding a little sunshine in all the doom and gloom. "Defensively, I thought we were decent, but offensively we weren't as consistent as we need to be. The offensive opportunities were there, we just didn't take advantage of them in the second half, like we did in the first.

"Obviously, I'm disappointed in the loss," continued Biebel. "But it was still a good start for us. The energy level was good, we did what we needed to do to put ourselves in position to win — now we've got to find a way to get that job done."