WINONA, Minn. — Nick Ogren (Stillwater, Minn.) was on a mission for the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota men's basketball team Monday evening.
 
The Cardinal freshman was virtually unstoppable for the Cardinals in the opening 20 minutes of their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game against Carleton—draining his first four 3-point field goal attempts.
 
And when the Knights clamped down on Ogren in the second half, Connor Kaiser (Rockland, Wis.) stepped up when the Cardinals needed it most—draining a 3-pointer and completing a three-point play on back-to-back possessions to pull Saint Mary's even, 57-57 with less than two minutes remaining in regulation.
 
Unfortunately, over those final 120 seconds, Carleton scored the game's final four points in handing the Cardinals a heartbreaking 61-57 setback at the Saint Mary's Gym.
 
It was Ogren's show in the first half, as he knocked down four of Saint Mary's six first-half 3-pointers, helping the Cardinals build first-half leads as big as five points, including a 28-23 advantage with four minutes remaining.
 
The Knights, however, were equally as deadly from behind the arc—going 5-for-11 over the first 20 minutes—as Carleton closed the half on a 11-3 run to take a three-point, 34-31, advantage into the locker room at the break.
 
The halftime intermission did nothing to cool of the Cardinals, as they scored the first six points of the second half to grab a 37-34 lead. Carleton turned the tables on the hot-shooting Cardinals, however, using a 19-6 burst to grab its biggest lead of the game, 53-43, with just over nine minutes on the clock.
 
Saint Mary's responded with an 8-0 run of its own, and, thanks to Kaiser's late-game heroics, pulled even at 57-57 with less than two minutes remaining in regulation.
 
Shane McSparron got a layup with 1:35 on the clock to give the Knights the lead for good, 59-57, and Carleton would knock down 2 of 7 free throws—while the Cardinals went 0-for-6 from the field—in securing the victory.
 
Ogren finished with a team-leading 12 points, while Kaiser came off the bench to chip in 11 for the Cardinals (1-9 MIAC, 2-11 overall).
 
McSparron and Tianen Chen each scored a game-high 14 points for the Knights (4-5 MIAC, 7-7 overall), with Mitchell Biewen also finishing in double figures with 10 points.
 
The Cardinals are back in action on Saturday, when they travel to Si Melby Hall on the Augsburg campus in Minneapolis, Minn., for a 3 p.m. conference game against the Auggies.

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