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WINONA, Minn. — It took the Saint Mary's University men's basketball team a while to find its shooting touch Wednesday evening, but once they did, the Cardinals were unstoppable.

Pat Freeman (Brooklyn Park, Minn.) knocked down a pair of clutch 3-pointers — accounting for six of his seven points on the night — in the game's final minutes and Michael Burfeind (Lewiston, Minn.) scored a game-high 23 points in leading the Cardinals to their second straight win, a 51-49 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory over Bethel at the SMU Gym.

“The guys played with a lot of poise tonight,” said SMU coach Todd Landrum. “It wasn't very pretty in the first half, but we always stress that it's a 40-minute game, and they really got the job done over those final 20 minutes.”

After a sub-par first half — in which the Cardinals trailed by as many as 16 points before heading into the locker room staring at an 11-point, 31-20 deficit — SMU came out looking like an entirely different team to open the second half.

SMU used a 16-7 run over the first nine minutes of the second half to cut the Royals' lead to two, 38-36. Bethel held the hard-charging Cardinals at bay for a while, leading 45-42 with just under five minutes remaining in regulation, before Freeman made his presence felt, draining back-to-back 3-pointers — the first to tie the game 45-45, and the second to give SMU its first lead since the game's opening minute, 48-47, with 1:30 on the clock.

The two teams traded baskets, Bethel's on a jumper by Taylor Hall and SMU's on a pair of free throws by Tim Kunkel (Northfield, Ill.), to give the Cardinals a 50-49 advantage.

Down by one, the Royals' Daniel Baah missed a 3-pointer with 13 seconds remaining, but Kellan Dahlquist grabbed the offensive rebound. Bethel's hopes of holding the ball for a last-second shot, however, were dashed when Burfeind stole the ball from Baah, was fouled, and made one of two free throws to seal SMU's second straight win.

Burfeind scored 14 of his game-high 23 points in the second half, as the SMU junior finished 10 of 18 from the field — including a 3-pointer — and was 2-for-5 from the free throw line.

Hall, meanwhile, scored 17 points in the losing effort for Bethel (2-5 MIAC, 6-6 overall).

The Cardinals (2-5 MIAC, 2-10 overall) are back in action on Saturday, hosting Augsburg in a 3 p.m. conference contest at the SMU Gym.