POINT LOOKOUT, Mo. – What the Husson basketball team did with its opportunities in Wednesday’s first round of the NAIA Division II Men’s National Basketball Tournament would keep the Braves in the game in the first half but ultimately lead to St. Mary’s 92-79 victory.

The Braves were down by as many as seven points midway through the first half, but battled back to head into the locker room at halftime tied at 44-44.

“Through the last eight minutes of the first half, we were in a good rhythm,” Husson coach Warren Caruso said. “We shot well and took advantage of some dry spells by [St. Mary].”

The Braves shot 55 percent from the field (18 for 33) in the first half and were led by Robert Pilsbury’s 22 first-half points. Pilsbury hit five of eight shots from behind the 3-point line in the first half.

Through the first 13 minutes of the second half, the Braves and the Spires of Dodge City, Kan., traded the lead as Husson played tough defense.

“We opened up the second half and did a nice job on defense,” Caruso said.

“The problem is were weren’t scoring. I thought we could have gotten a six- or eight-point lead to get into a rhythm, but we missed some opportunities.”

With seven minutes left in the game, the Spires started to pull away. After a poor shooting stretch and some key turnovers the Braves found themselves in a 10-point hole with five minutes left.

“Again, we missed some opportunities to take control of the tempo of the game,” Caruso said. “We never really answered [Saint Mary’s] run. We went about four or five minutes without scoring and let them take control of the game.”

Husson’s comeback attempt was hindered when sophomore Randy Fletcher committed his fifth foul with about six minutes left in the game.

“Losing Fletcher in the second half hurt us,” Caruso said. “He wasn’t able to give us the minutes he usually does in the second half. After that we weren’t able to get our inside-outside game back on track and we just didn’t get it done.”

Saint Mary stretched its lead to 15 points with three minutes to go. That’s when Pilsbury went to work, scoring seven unanswered points to cut Husson’s deficit to eight points, 84-76.

The Spires stretched their lead back to 13 points as the clock expired on Husson’s season.

Caruso said Pilsbury, who scored 43 points, put the team on his back.

“[Pilsbury] is a player and he had a lot of things working well,” he said. “We just couldn’t find anyone in the second half to complement him and give us a little balance.”

The Braves had that balance in the first half, according to Caruso.

“Matt Breen and Fletcher inside,” he said. “[Fletcher] had nine and [Breen] had seven to complement [Pilsbury’s] 22 points. In the second half we couldn’t find anyone to go with Pilsbury when their defense keyed in on him.”

The Braves’ second-half shooting woes (36 percent) dropped their percentage for the game to 45 percent (30-for-66), while the Spires hit 49 percent of their shots (32-for-65).

“Our shooting hurt us in the second half,” Caruso said. “We were getting some good looks at the basket. The shots just weren’t falling.”

After hitting 7 of 14 3-point attempts in the first half, Husson made only three of 11 3’s in the second half.

Pilsbury hit 15 of 25 shots, including eight of 16 3-point tries and five of seven free throws.

Spires 92, Braves 79

St. Mary (24-8) Husson (21-5)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG F AF TP

Ockey 6 10 2 3 17 Fletcher 4 8 9

Pinkett 6 13 5 6 17 Breen 3 9 2 8

Williams 6 8 3 4 15 Lancaster 3 7

Brown 6 11 5 5 20 Russo 1 4 1 4

M. Finnell 5 9 1 2 14 Pilsbury 15 25 5 7 43

D. Finnell 0 0 0 0 0 Rivera 1 7 2

Swartz 2 3 0 0 4 Brown 0 0 0 0

Arter 0 2 2 2 2 Robb 0 0 0 0

Woods 0 1 0 0 0 Griffin 3 6 0 6

Shelley 1 7 0 0 3

Rhea 0 0 0 0 0

Gale 0 1 0 0 0

Totals 32 65 18 22 92 Totals 30 66 9 18 79

Saint Mary 44 92

Husson 44 79

3-pt. goals: Saint Mary (10-25): Ockey 3-6, Williams 0-1, Brown 3-6, M. Finnell 3-7, Arter 0-1, Shelley 1-4; Husson (10-26): Fletcher 0-3, Lancaster 1-2, Russo 1-2, Pilsbury 8-16, Rivera 0-3