Men's Basketball 1/15/03 -- Augsburg 71, St. Mary's 64 

BOXSCORE

WINONA, Minn. (1/15/03) -- Numbers don't lie -- and the numbers tell the whole story for the Saint Mary's University men's basketball team in its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game against Augsburg College on Wednesday night.

-- Field goal attempts: 52 for Augsburg, 64 for Saint Mary's.

-- 3-point attempts: 18 for Augsburg, 23 for Saint Mary's.

So far, so good for the Cardinals, right?

-- Free throw attempts: 26 for Augsburg, 3 for Saint Mary's.

Wrong.

The Cardinals were a perfect 3-for-3 from the free throw line, but the Auggies made 18 of their 26 free throw attempts — including several down the stretch as Augsburg pulled out a 71-64 victory over the Cardinals at the SMU gym.

"We played hard, but we didn't make the big shots when we needed them," said SMU coach Bob Biebel, whose team dropped its fourth straight. "I thought we played pretty well, but we had a few situations where we needed a big basket, and we couldn't come up with it."

The Cardinals, who struggled from the field in the first half, managing just 22 points, and were starting at a five-point, 27-22, hole at the break. The Cardinals found their shooting touch in the second half, connecting on 17 of their 34 attempts from the field, but the Auggies' sizzling performance from the free-throw line proved to be too much.

"We can't keep sending teams to the line like that," said Biebel, whose team has taken fewer trips to the free-throw line in 12 of its 13 games this season. "We sent (Augsburg) to the line, and they did their job — they made the shots when they had to."

Jim Wangler (Wheaton, Ill.) tossed in a career-high 27 points to lead the Cardinals (2-7 MIAC, 2-11 overall) in scoring for the third straight game. Nick Michaels (Dyer, Ind.) chipped in 12 points, while Ryan Wilt (Naperville, Ill.) tallied his first double-double of the season, scoring 10 points and adding 11 rebounds.

Casey Zilka (Jr., Eden Prairie, Minn.), Yarzue Slowon (So., Crystal, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong HS) and Marcus Gholson (Jr., Gary, Ind./William A. Wirt HS) all scored 15 points to pace Augsburg (3-6 MIAC, 6-8 overall), which has now won three straight after suffering through an eight-game losing streak. Jay Howard * (Sr., Burnsville, Minn.) added 12 points and seven rebounds.

Both teams return to action on Saturday (1/18). Augsburg plays at Concordia-Moorhead at 3 p.m., while St. Mary's has a nonconference game, hosting Wisconsin-River Falls at 7:30 p.m