BOX SCORE
WINONA, Minn. – Rarely in basketball does a team have a worse shooting percentage and get outrebounded, and still get the win, however, tonight Saint Mary's University defeated the Bethel University men's basketball team 51-49. The Royals outrebounded the Cardinals 39-33 and out shot the hosting SMU 40.4 to 37 percent, yet it wasn't enough down the stretch in the devastating road loss.
BU came out explosive in the first half, going out of the shoots with a three-pointer by
JD Robinson (Jr., Plymouth, Minn.) followed by a series of buckets that put the Royals up 10 with 11 minutes remaining in the first half, 17-7. Bethel continued to apply the pressure throughout the final minutes, reaching a 14-point advantage when
Daniel Baah (Sr., Farmington, Minn.), returning from an injury, finished a layup at the 5:08 mark. The Royals pushed it to 16 on a
John DeCleene (So., DePere, Wis.) bucket in the paint, but ended the half with an 11-point advantage 31-20.
The Royals pounded the ball in the paint, outscoring the Cardinals 16-6 and found much of its success on fast breaks, finishing with a 10-5 advantage. BU found perhaps its biggest asset on its bench, as Bethel's nonstarters composed 20 points in the opening frame, compared to SMU's two.
Taylor Hall (Jr., Blaine, Minn.) pulled the trigger on the first shot of the second period and made a field goal to push the Royals lead to 13, but that is where the good times started to fade. From that point, SMU rattled off a 16-4 run that put the scoring margin to two points still in favor of BU 38-36. Hall drained a big three-pointer with 11:08 to play that put Bethel ahead by five, but the Cardinals clawed back to even the game 45-45 with under three minutes to play. SMU then hit a three-pointer with 1:39 to play that put Saint Mary's ahead 48-47, and despite a
Taylor Hall jump shot that put the Royals ahead with 45 seconds to go, the Cardinals closed out Bethel 51-49.
Saint Mary's turned the tides in the second period, outscoring the Royals 14-8 in points in the paint, 6-2 in points off turnovers, and 8-2 in second chance points. The Cardinals also flipped its shooting percentage from the first half, as SMU went from a dismal 27 percent to 48 percent in the final 20 minutes. The Cardinals also limited the Royals to just 33 percent, after allowing 47 percent in the first half.
Taylor Hall returned to the lineup tonight nicely, finishing with 17 points and five rebounds.
Luke Buttenhoff (So., Watertown, Minn.) continued to add solid minutes off the bench with eight points and eight rebounds.
After dropping three consecutive games, Bethel is hungry for a “W”. The Royals will need to feed off tonight's missed opportunity when hosting Hamline University Saturday at the Robertson Center Gym at 3 p.m. to keep themselves in the hunt for one of the top spots in the MIAC.
