ST. PAUL, Minn. — On Dec. 4, the Saint Mary's University men's basketball team kicked off a two-game winning streak, getting a then-season high 20 points from Dan Cormier (Blaine, Minn.) in an 81-73 win over Macalester.

On Wednesday, the Cardinals completed a two-game winning streak — and an season sweep — with a 60-49 victory over the Scots.

And once again, Cormier shined brightly on center stage.

The SMU junior continued to be a thorn in the Scots' side, recording his first collegiate double-double, scoring a career-high 26 points, while also pulling down a career-best 14 rebounds.

"Every win now is great, but for us to put together back-to-back wins like this is nice to see — the guys are finally starting to understand what it takes to win in this league," said SMU coach Mike Trewick, whose team was coming off a 66-63 win over league-leading Saint John's on Monday — handing the Johnnies their first conference loss of the season. "I was a little worried coming in that there might be a letdown of some sort, and we did come out a little slow at the start of the game.

"But we got things on track midway through the first half and never let up."

Cormier netted the first two points of the game, a pair of free throws in the game's opening minute, and tallied the final two points on a layup with 25 seconds remaining in regulation — and in between, he would add 22 more points.

And the Cardinals needed every one of them.

The Cardinals shook off a sluggish start, falling behind by as many as 10 points in the opening 20 minutes, before using a late, 14-3 run to take a one-point lead into the locker room at the half.

And it was more of the same in the second half, as SMU finally broke free of the pesky Scots, using a 16-6 run in a seven-minute span late in the half to take its biggest lead of the game, 58-47, a lead they would equal on Cormier's final basket of the game.

"Dan was the difference tonight," said Trewick of his senior. "Macalester is a good matchup for him and he did what we needed him to do. He brought so much energy tonight, everyone just seemed to feed off him."

The Cardinals, who will be gunning for their first three-game winning streak since a week long, three-game run from Jan. 21-28, 2004 when they play host to Hamline on Saturday, shot 44 percent from the field (23-for-52) and held a 42-29 rebounding advantage.

Along with Cormier's game-high 26 points, SMU (5-8 MIAC, 6-11 overall) got 13 points from Brensley Haywood (Joliet, Ill.), while Lars Johnson netted 11 points to lead the way for Macalester.