CARDINAL MEN'S BASKETBALL HOME
(http://sports.smumn.edu/m_basketball)
Cardinal Roster
Cardinal Statistics
Cardinal Schedule
MIAC Standings
2006-2007 Records:
2-2 MIAC / 2-5 Overall
Last Week's Results:
Saint Mary's 81, Macalester 73 / Details
Saint Mary's 89, Hamline 87 / Details
MSU-Mankato 79, Saint Mary's 57 / Details
Upcoming Games:
Thurs., Dec., 28: Neb. Wesleyan at SMU, 5:00
Wed., Jan. 3: St. Olaf at SMU, 5:45
Sat., Jan. 6: Gustavus at SMU, 1:00
Cardinal News and Notes:
The Cardinals' wins vs. Macalester and Hamline last week marked the first time SMU has won back-to-back games this season. … SMU's win at Hamline Wednesday snapped a 13-game road losing streak, dating back to a 61-56 win at Augsburg on Dec. 3, 2005. … The record of SMU's opponents in the Cardinals' five losses is 34-5 (10-0 Winona State; 3-3 UW-Eau Claire; 6-0 St. Thomas; 5-1 Saint John's; and 10-0 MSU-Mankato). …  Dan Cormier (Blaine, Minn.) had a career week, netting a career-high 20 points in SMU's win vs. Macalester, then eclipsing that mark with his 25-point effort — including hte game-winning basket with eight seconds remaining — against the Pipers two days later. … Brensley Haywood (Joliet, Ill.) netted his second straight 19-point effort vs. Macalester last Monday. … Haywood netted a team-best 18 points in Saturday's loss to MSU-Mankato. … Haywood has now scored in double figures in six of SMU's seven games, while leading the team with a 14.3 ppg average.
SMU's losses have come against stiff competition, including 79-57 setback against 10-1 MSU-Mankato

Dan Cormier
19.0 ppg last
week; career-
high 25 vs.
Hamline
WINONA, Minn. — If Saint Mary's University men's basketball coach Mike Trewicki needed to pinpoint why his Cardinals are heading into the Christmas break with a 2-5 overall record, he need to look no further than SMU's opposition.

Heading into last Saturday's nonconference game against Minnesota State University-Mankato, the Cardinals' first four losses came against opponents that boasted a combined 24-4 overall record.

Make that a 34-5 overall, as the Mavericks won their eighth straight and pushed their overall record to 10-1, getting a game-high 21 points from Luke Anderson en route to a 79-57 nonconference victory over SMU.

"(Saturday's) game can only help us later on — just like the games we've already played," said Trewick, whose team's losses have now come against Winona State, currently the defending NCAA Division II national champions and a perfect 10-0 this season, as well UW-Eau Claire (3-3 overall). St. Thomas (6-0 overall), Saint John's (5-1 overall) and the seventh-ranked Mavericks (10-1 overall). "Playing against teams like Winona State, St. Thomas and Saint John's were good learning experiences — and I don't think we beat Hamline (last Wednesday) had we not played those games first."

The Cardinals, who snapped a 13-game road losing streak with their last-second 89-87 win over Hamline last Wednesday, were no match for the host Mavericks, as Minnesota State jumped out to a 12-point, 34-22 halftime advantage and slowly pulled away over the game's final 20 minutes.

MSU scored 19 of the first 25 points in the second half in snapping SMU's two-game winning streak.

"I thought we played great defense in the first half and hung with them pretty well," said Trewick, who got a team-high 18 points from Brensley Haywood (Joliet, Ill.) and a season-high 14 from Terrence Smith (Broadview, Ill.). "But in the second half, (MSU) made that early run and all of the sudden everyone thought they could get us back in the game by trying to do it all themselves, and before you know it, we were down by 32.

"When we work as a team and not a bunch of individuals, we are a very good team — a team that can play with anyone. That's the lesson I hope we learned playing a team as good as Mankato State."