WINONA, Minn. — The Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference season consists of 20 games, and during that 20-game span, each of the 11 teams in the conference receives two byes.

The first bye for the Saint Mary's University men's basketball team came last Saturday. Only, rather than enjoying a day off, the Cardinals traveled to Eau Claire, Wis., for a nonconference game against UW-Eau Claire.

Unfortunately for coach Mark Lovelace, despite the scheduled game, his Cardinals still decided to take the day off — and the Blugolds made them pay, jumping out to a 21-4 advantage and never looking back en route to a 78-50 victory.

"We did not show up to play at all," said Lovelace, whose team dropped its third straight. "(Eau Claire) is a very good team, but we made them look better than they really are. We just couldn't do anything right. It was not a good showing."

The Cardinals shot just 39 percent from the floor, including 31 percent in the first half when they made just 7 of 22 attempts. Jimmy Wajda (Minneapolis, Minn.) and Jeff Tendall (LeClaire, Iowa) led the way for the Cardinals, scoring eight points each.

SMU never did recover from that early 17-point deficit, needing a 10-2 run to get within 10, only to fall behind by 18, 40-22, at the intermission. UW-Eau Claire continued to pour it on in the second half, outscoring the Cardinals 38-28 for the easy win.

"It's disappointing that we didn't show up and play the way we are capable, but our main focus is the conference schedule, so we aren't going to get too caught up in this loss," said Lovelace, whose team was coming off a heartbreaking 59-58 loss to Augsburg last Wednesday. "This really wasn't the best time to have a nonconference game — right in the middle of the (MIAC) season, and in the middle of a stretch of five straight road games.

"We probably would have been better off just using the bye as a time to rest," continued Lovelace, whose team travels to Concordia, Minn., to take on the Cobbers on Monday. "Hopefully we can regroup."