St. Mary's defeats men's basketball

The Cardinals (7-5, 5-2 in the MIAC) led by just four points with 13:53 left in the game, but stretched the lead to 61-44 in a span of 3:10. Terrence Smith netted nine of his 18 points during the run.

Hamline (5-7, 4-3) stormed back to cut the lead to 63-57 with 5:52 remaining. First-year David Johnson scored the last five points of the Pipers' spurt.

However, the Cardinals were too tough down the stretch. After a Joe Smock four-point play narrowed the lead to 77-74 with 1:37 remaining, Smith answered with a jumper to up the lead to five. The Pipers couldn't capitalize on their next possession before St. Mary's would hit 6 of 6 free throws in the last 26 seconds to earn the win.

Smock led the Pipers with 17 points. Junior Sam Wiener added 14 points, nine rebounds, and five assists. First-years Jon DeRock and Tony Thrasher scored 13 and 12 points, respectively. Thrasher pulled down nine rebounds.

Cardinal Brensley Haywood led all scorers with 20 points on 6 of 9 from the floor. Michael Batterman and Fiore Buccieri each totaled 12 points while Michael Rohr had 10. Batterman also had 10 boards.

St. Mary's shot 44 percent for the game (28-63) while Hamline was at 43 percent (26-60).  The Cardinals made the difference at the free throw line, making 21 of 26 on the night - 18 of 20 in the second half.

The Pipers will host St. John's on Saturday. Game time at Hutton Arena is set for 3:00 p.m.