MOORHEAD, Minn. — It was a game of the hunter and the hunted when the Saint Mary's University men's basketball team squared off against Concordia Saturday afternoon at Memorial Auditorium.
 
Early on in the teams' Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference contest, the Cardinals assumed the role of the hunted and the Cobbers were the hunters.
 
Unfortunately, when the roles were reversed midway through the half, the Cobbers took off—and no matter how hard they tried, Saint Mary's could not hunt them down—as Concordia held off the hard-charging Cardinals 71-63.
 
Saint Mary's carried the hot hand early on, opening the contest by scoring the first five points, while also leading 9-8, 13-12 and 16-14 in the game's opening 10 minutes.
 
Over the final 10 minutes of the half, it was the Cobbers' turn to play from out front, as Concordia built a pair of five-point cushions, before settling for a four-point, 33-29 halftime advantage.
 
And the Cobbers were just getting warmed up.
 
Concordia knocked down three 3-pointers in the first six minutes of the second half in racing out to its biggest lead of the game, 50-36. A pair of free throws by Wylie Ferron (Waconia, Minn.), a 3-pointer from Will Swiggum (St. Charles, Minn.) and four consecutive free throws by Ronnie Ortiz (Dayton, Ohio) ignited a four-minute, 11-2 Saint Mary's run that got the Cardinals within five, 52-47, with 10 minutes remaining.
 
The Cardinals would whittle the Cobber lead to four twice—the second time 58-54 with 4:38 left to play, but Concordia would close the game scoring 13 of the final 22 points to seal the win.
 
Ferron and Nick Ogren (Stillwater, Minn.) led the way for the Cardinals, finishing with 14 and 13 points, respectively, while Swiggum chipped in eight points and Mark Schumacher (Perham, Minn.) hauled in a team-high eight rebounds.
 
The Cardinals shot 44 percent from the field (23-for-52) and knocked down five 3-pointers, while Concordia hit on 49 percent of its field goals (28-for-57—including 5 of 8 from behind the arc.
 
Jordan Bolger led the way for Concordia (1-2 MIAC, 5-3 overall), scoring a game-high 21 points and adding 13 rebounds. Brady Syverson also scored in double figures for CC, finishing with 13 points.
 
Saint Mary's (1-4 MIAC, 1-6 overall) step out of conference play on Monday, as Saint Mary's travels St. Bonifacius, Minn., for a 7 p.m. nonconference game against Crown.