The SIUC men’s basketball team had no one to blame but itself Tuesday night for losing its second consecutive game.

After giving up a 17-0 run in the second half to St. Louis University in an 85-76 loss at SIU Arena Saturday, the Salukis missed several scoring chances to steal away a win from St. Mary’s College.

The Salukis missed a chance to tie St. Mary’s with less than six minutes to go in the game, but a goaltending call on forward James Jackson negated the basket. After two St. Mary’s three-pointers, SIUC missed five chances to draw within three points in the game’s final 1:30 in a 73-66 loss to the Gaels in Moraga, Calif.

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The loss dropped SIUC to 1-3 on the season. St. Mary’s improved to 3-1 on the year despite not playing with center Brad Big Continent Millard. The 7-foot-3, 345-pound Millard had surgery on his broken left foot Tuesday and is not expected to return until January.

Saluki coach Rich Herrin was disappointed with his team’s poor decisions down the stretch.

We made a great effort and a great comeback down by 10, but we still made a lot of mental mistakes down the stretch, Herrin said in his postgame radio show. We did have some physical effort, but the mental mistakes really hurt us.

We didn’t do a very good job of taking care of the ball, but we did make an effort to come back and had an opportunity to win the ballgame.

SIUC fell behind from the opening tip against a smaller St. Mary’s squad and never overcame the early slump. St. Mary’s took advantage of 11 Saluki turnovers and 34-percent shooting in the first half to take a 39-29 lead into halftime.

SIUC opened the first half with a 7-0 run on two baskets by Shane Hawkins, and a bucket by Monte Jenkins to cut the lead to 39-36. But the Gaels responded much like they did to every Saluki run in the half on a basket by Eric Schraeder. Schraeder finished the game with 25 points and four three-pointers.

St. Mary’s opened the lead to 64-55 with eight minutes left on a dunk by Schraeder on Saluki forward Thanasis Topouzis, but Topouzis returned the favor on a basket that keyed the Salukis’ final run.

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SIUC drew to within 64-62 on two free throws by Rashad Tucker with less than six minutes remaining. The Salukis appeared to tie the game on the next possession before Jackson was called for offensive goaltending for touching the ball on the cylinder.

St. Mary’s responded with consecutive three-pointers by Schraeder to open the lead to 70-62 with three minutes left.

He was unguarded both times, and there’s no reason for that, Herrin said. We’re in a zone, and we know that those guys can shoot the basketball. He’s is 4-for-4, and that’s not getting the job done.

The threes really, really hurt us. That pretty well puts it out of sight when you only have a couple of minutes left.

SIUC drew to within 71-66 on a layup by Tucker and had a chance to draw within three after a Gaels turnover. But center James Watts and James Jackson each missed putbacks on offensive rebounds. After the Gaels missed a layup, Tucker missed three shots in the lane on the next possession.

St. Mary’s could not capitalize with the ball as they missed a free throw, but Tucker was called for a charge after he dished off a pass to guard Josh Cross with less than 30 seconds left. The Gaels then hit two free throws to seal the seven-point win.

This (St. Mary’s) is not a big basketball team and not great athletes, but they’re a very smart basketball team, Herrin said. We played very hard, very intensely, but we didn’t deliver when it was necessary to deliver.

Tucker and guard Shane Hawkins led the Salukis with 16 points each. Hawkins, a senior from Pinckneyville, moved into a second-place tie in the Missouri Valley Conference rankings with Bradley’s Aaron Zobrist for most three-pointers in a career with 233.

SIUC now heads to Honolulu for the Power Bar Men’s Invitational, which begins Sunday. The Salukis play Long Beach State University (2-3) Sunday. Depending on the outcome of that game and the other matchup between Tulane University and the University of Hawaii Saturday, SIUC will play Hawaii Sunday or Tulane Monday.

We know Hawaii is the best team; we’re just thankful we don’t have to play Hawaii first, Herrin said. We’ve got a chance to beat Long Beach. It won’t be easy because they’ve got some good athletes. We need a victory down there. We can’t go 0-3, that’s for sure.