WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota men's basketball team got 15 points from Mark Schumacher (Perham, Minn.), and the Cardinals gave league-leading and second-ranked St. Thomas all it could handle in the first half of their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game Wednesday evening.
 
Over the final 20 minutes, however, the Tommies wore the Cardinals down, holding a 37-21 in the second half in handing Saint Mary's a 79-57 setback at the Saint Mary's Gym.
 
It was tough to find any fault in the Cardinals' play over the opening 20 minutes, as Saint Mary's shot 61 percent from the field (16-for-26)—including 3 of 4 from behind the 3-point line—en route to its 36 first-half point.
 
The problem was, the Tommies were equally as deadly in the first half, shooting 40 percent from the field (13-for-32), but they also knocked down eight 3-pointers—including a 6 of 9 showing from Marcus Alipate—as UST grabbed a six-point, 42-36 lead at the break.
 
St. Thomas led by as many as 10, 40-30, in the opening half, but the Cardinals used in a half-ending 6-2 burst to cut the deficit to six heading into the game's final 20 minutes.
 
The Tommies came out firing on all cylinders in the second half, using an 11-0 run to open the half, turning that six-point lead into a 17-point, 53-36 advantage—and the Cardinals were never able to cut into the UST lead.
 
Schumacher—who scored a career-high 20 points in Monday's 57-45 win over Illinois Institute of Technology—went 7-for-9 from the field and was 1-for-1 from the free throw line en route to his team-best 15 points.
 
St. Thomas (13-1 MIAC, 18-1 overall) boasted three players in double figures, led by Taylor Montero with 23 points and Alipate with 21. Conner Nord added 12 points and a team-best eight boards for the Tommies, who pushed their winning streak to 14 in a row.
 
The Cardinals (1-13 MIAC, 4-15 overall) are back in action on Saturday, hosting Concordia in a 3 p.m. conference game at the Saint Mary's Gym.