The Teams
Saint Mary's Cardinals (2-9 MIAC, 3-12)
vs.
St. Thomas Tommies (8-4 MIAC, 12-4)
The Vitals
Wednesday, Jan. 31 • SMU Gym • 7:30 p.m.
Last Meeting
Despite being tied, 41-41, at halftime, the Cardinals lost for the 26th straight time to the Tommies in the teams' first meeting, 87-67 on Jan. 3
Last Action
The Cardinals put together their first two-game winning streak of the season, thanks to a 79-60 victory over St. Olaf Saturday. … St. Thomas, meanwhile, won for the fifth time in six games, beating Hamline 74-61 Saturday.
This and That
Both of SMU’s MIAC wins have come vs. St. Olaf. … Jason Dzick (Duluth, Minn.) averaged 16.5 ppg, including a team-high 16 points vs. St. Olaf, as the Cardinals won back-to-back games last week. … Nick Michaels (Dyer, Ind.) scored 13 points vs. both St. Olaf and Viterbo, while Andy Bohnker (Story City, Iowa) (11 vs. St. Olaf) and Dusty Ward (Lakeville, Minn.) (18 vs. Viterbo) also scored in double figures. … SMU holds a 503-497 scoring advantage in the first half.
 SMU |
 St. Thomas |
|
|
|
| Team Roster | Team Roster |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CARDINAL PROFILEDusty Ward
|
 |
of 3 games in 4 days vs. UST
WINONA, Minn. — If there’s one thing Saint Mary’s University men’s basketball coach Bob Biebel has learned in his three-plus seasons as the Cardinals coach, it’s that the MIAC schedule can be a real grind.
Games on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, week-in and week-out, can really wear on a team.
“It’s tough,” admitted Biebel of the three-games-in-a-week setup. “You play, then have a day to practice — but you can’t practice too hard, because you have a game the next day — then you play, have a day off, practice, play …
“Then start it all over again.”
Mother Nature must have heard Biebel’s subtle cry for a break in the schedule, as her January rain/ice storm forced the postponement of Monday’s scheduled games — including SMU’s road game against Gustavus — giving the Cardinals a rare Monday off.
Unfortunately, what Mother Nature didn’t realize was, by postponing Monday’s games, all she really did was tighten the schedule even more.
Now, instead of playing three games in six days, the Cardinals will actually be playing three games in four days — tonight at home against St. Thomas, Thursday at Gustavus and Saturday at Augsburg.
Hey, Mother Nature, thanks for nothing.
“It should be interesting,” Biebel said of the first-ever back-to-back games in his tenure at SMU. “Playing games on back-to-back nights is going to be tough, but it’s going to be the same for every school in the conference, so I don’t think it should have much of an impact.
“It’s just going to be a matter of who shows up mentally and physically ready to play.”
The Cardinals enter tonight’s rematch with St. Thomas riding their first two-game winning streak of the season, and Biebel is hoping his team can ride the wave of that success to a victory over the Tommies.
“We proved the first time around that we can play with them,” said Biebel, whose team played the Tommies even (41-41) through the game’s first 20 minutes, only to get outscored 46-26 in the second half of an 87-67 St. Thomas victory. “But this time around, we can’t just show up for the first half, we have to put it all together for 40 minutes.”
Something the Cardinals did to perfection in recent wins over Viterbo and St. Olaf.
“Winning those two in a row has been a huge emotional boost,” said Biebel. “Right now, our main focus is on taking care of ourselves. We can’t worry about what the other team is doing, we just have to go out and execute our game plan.
“If we can do that, we’ll be just fine.”
Maybe a little worn out by the time Sunday rolls around, but just fine all the same.