Men's Basketball 1/25/06 -- St. Mary's 84, Augsburg 71 

BOXSCORE

WINONA, Minn. (1/25/06) -- The St. Mary's University men's basketball team is tough to beat at home.

Just ask Augsburg College.

The Cardinals pushed their record to 6-2 on their home floor Wednesday evening, as Brenlsey Haywood (Jr., Joliet, Ill./Joliet Catholic Academy HS) scored 17 points and Terrence Smith (Jr., Broadview, Ill./St. Joseph HS) added 14 points and nine rebounds in leading SMU to an 84-71 win over the Auggies.

SMU, which entered Wednesday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game on the heels of a heartbreaking 58-57 loss at St. Olaf last Saturday -- a game in which the Cardinals lost on a layup with 1.6 seconds remaining in regulation -- led from start to finish against the Auggies.

Michael Batterman (Jr., Fond du Lac, Wis./Lomira HS) got the Cardinals off and running with a basket seven seconds into the opening half, and SMU never looked back, building leads as big as 16 points before settling for a 13-point, 40-27 halftime advantage.

And the Auggies never recovered, as SMU pushed its lead to 21, 61-40, midway through the second half and coasted to its sixth conference win against five losses.

The Cardinals shot 55 percent from the field (27-for-49) -- with Haywood knocking down 7 of 11 field goals, including three 3-pointers, while Smith went 5-for-7 from the field and 4-for-8 from the free throw line -- en route to their fifth 70-plus point offensive effort in eight home games.

Michael Rohr (So., Bloomingdale, Ill./Lake Park HS) also netted 14 points for the Cardinals (6-5 MIAC, 8-8 overall), who snapped their season-high three-game losing streak with the win.

Justin Kozlowski (So., Wausau, Wis./Wausau Newman HS) scored a game-high 23 points and Kevin Keto (Jr., Forest Lake, Minn.) added 13 points in the losing effort for Augsburg (2-10 MIAC, 3-14), which lost its seventh straight game.

Aaron Benesh (Sr., Oconto, Wis.) had 11 points for the Auggies, while Dan Graf (Jr., Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial HS) had nine points.

Both teams return to MIAC play on Saturday (1/28) at 3:15 p.m. Augsburg hosts Bethel, while St. Mary's plays at Macalester.