WINONA, Minn. — There was two ways Saint Mary's University men's basketball coach Mark Lovelace could look at his Cardinals' performance in last Saturday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game against league-leading Gustavus. 

On the one hand, the Cardinals held Gustavus to just 66 points – and only one player managed to score more than 10 points.

On the other hand, the Cardinals held Gustavus to just 66 points — but Doug Espenson scored 32 of those by himself.

Espenson was a one-man wrecking crew for the Gusties — and the rest of the Gustavus team just hopped on the 6-foot-4 junior's broad shoulders and went along for the ride — as GAC pulled way down the stretch in beating SMU 66-58 at the SMU Gym.

"We played hard, but I wouldn't say we played all that well," said Lovelace, whose team dropped to 1-7 in the MIAC and 2-10 overall with the loss. "Gustavus gets a lot of credit for our performance — they took us out of our game. They made it tough for us to do the things we like to do.

"Defensively I thought we did a good job – we just couldn't stop (Espenson)," Lovelace continued. "We held them in check except for one guy — and he went off on us."

But the Gusties' in-your-face style — and Espenson's hot hand from virtually everywhere on the floor — weren't the only culprits. The fact that SMU made just 8 of 18 free throws, including just two before the game's final six minutes, also weighed into the final outcome.

"To make just eight free throws is terrible," said Lovelace, whose team went to the line just four times in the first half, missing all four, before going 8 of 14 in the second half. "We've got to do a better job from the line, it's that simple."

Gustavus jumped out to a 32-26 halftime advantage and never looked back, slowing pulling away in the second half. The Gusties made just 7 of 17 field goals attempts in the game's final 20 minutes, but converted on 18 of 24 free-throws to seal the win.

"The loss is frustrating, but the effort was certainly there. I was a little worried that we might come out flat after that big win Wednesday, but the guys didn't," said Lovelace, referring to Wednesday's 66-57 triumph over Macalester – a win that snapped SMU's 21-game MIAC losing streak. "This was a tough stretch. We faced three first-place teams in a row, and I thought we held our own against all three of them.

"After we lost to St. John's (Jan. 3), I thought this team could go in one of two directions," Lovelace continued. "We could have just packed it in — and gone through the motions the rest of the season — or we could keep battling and keep playing hard.

"You can tell by their effort the past week — these guys chose the right direction."