SMU at Northern Illinois / Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2006

vs.
Summary
1
2
OT
OT
F
Saint Mary's
35
34
69
Northern Illinois
48
36
86
Box Score / Game Highlights: Alex Washington, SMU: 13 points; Michael Rohr, SMU: 12 points; Brensley Haywood, SMU: 10 points; Mike McKinney, NIU: 20 points


Plenty of silver linings in Cardinals' exhibition loss to No. Illinois

DEKALB, Ill. — Saint Mary's University men's basketball coach Mike Trewick had a tough time feeling bad about his team's performance Wednesday evening against NCAA Division I Northern Illinois.

And his team lost by 15 points.

"The guys went out and played hard from start to finish — I was very happy with what I saw," said Trewick, whose team is coming off a nine-win season a year ago, the most wins by an SMU team since the Cardinals went 11-13 during the 1999-2000 season. "I didn't really know what to expect heading into this game — about the only negative I can even think of is the fact that we lost."

Sort of.

Since Wednesday's game against the Huskies was an exhibition game for the Cardinals, the 15-point loss won't count against SMU's schedule — but the lessons learned will pay huge dividends.

"We showed a lot of character tonight," said Trewick, who got a team-high 13 points from Alex Washington (Hillside, Ill.) and12 from Michael Rohr (Bloomingdale, Ill.) "I think we learned a lot tonight. Being able to play a game like this is a great learning experience — and I think we learned a lot tonight."

NIU jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the first minute of play and never looked back. After Saint Mary's cut the lead to 6-2 on Washington's first basket of the game, Northern Illinois quickly extended its lead to 18-6 at the 16-minute mark and the Cardinals would get no closer than seven points the rest of the game.

The Huskies led 48-35 at halftime as McKinney scored 14 of his 20 points in the first half. Northern Illinois extended its lead to 21 points twice in the second half, but Saint Mary's got hot from beyond the 3-point line to get as close as 12 points before falling by the final margin of 15.

"We struggled a bit early on, but when you are playing in an atmosphere like this — in your season opener — that's to be expected," said Trewick, whose team will "officially" kick off its season on Friday, Nov. 24 at Winona State. "If we play with the intensity we did tonight every time we step on the court, we are going to win a lot of games this season."