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WINONA, Minn. — It was a tale of two halves for the Saint Mary's University men's basketball team in their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference showdown with conference-leading and fifth-ranked St. Thomas Wednesday.

In the first half, the Cardinals gave the high-powered Tommies all they could handle in a see-saw 20 minutes that saw seven lead changes and ended with UST clinging to a six-point, 39-33 advantage.

In the second half, however, the Tommies' high-pressure defense proved to be too much for SMU, as UST opened the half with an 11-0 run and outscored the Cardinals 62-30 over the games final 20 minutes en route to a 101-63 St. Thomas victory at the SMU Gym.

Michael Burfeind (Lewiston, Minn.) led the way for the Cardinals, scoring a season-high 24 points on 9 of 18 shooting and a 6-for-11 effort from the free throw line. Evan Pederson also scored in double figures for SMU, finishing with 11 points and dishing out six assists.

SMU held leads of 2-0, 4-3, and 12-11 early in the first half — and a Tom Gores' (Rochester, Minn.) 3-pointer capped a 6-0 Cardinal run that gave them a 29-28 lead with 5:47 remaining. Over those final six minutes, however, UST outscored SMU 11-4 to take its 39-33 lead into the locker room at the break.

The Tommies, who shot 48 percent (16-for-33) from the field in the first half, were even better in the second, draining 20 of their 32 attempts from the field — including six 3-pointers — to pull away for their seventh straight win to open the season.

SMU is back in action on Saturday, when the Cardinals step out of conference play — hosting Crown in a 3 p.m. contest at the SMU Gym.