NORTHFIELD, Minn. — It was a streak-snapping kind of day for the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota men's basketball team Saturday afternoon.
 
Kai Endahl (Mendota Heights, Minn.) led a trio of Cardinal players with a career-high 13 points, as Saint Mary's put an end to a two-game losing streak—and a six-game slide against Carleton—with a 57-52 victory over the Knights at West Gym.
 
Endahl pumped in eight of his 13 points in the second half, while Connor Kaiser (Rockland, Wis.) netted 10 of his 12 points in the game's final 20 minutes, as Saint Mary's rallied from an early seven-point second-half deficit—and held off the Knights down the stretch to earn their fifth conference win of the season.
 
Will Swiggum (St. Charles, Minn.) set the tone for the Cardinals in the opening half, knocking down a 3-pointer on Saint Mary's first possession.
 
And the Cardinals were just heating up, as they raced out to a 12-3 advantage and led by 10, 26-16 with 7:14 remaining.
 
Over those final seven minutes, however, it was the Knights who found their shooting touch, scoring the final seven points of the half to cut the Cardinal lead to three, 26-23, at the break.
 
Carleton picked up where it left off to begin the second half, scoring nine unanswered points to grab a 32-26 lead. The Knights would push that advantage to seven twice—the second at 37-30 with 14:34 remaining.
 
The Cardinals used a 7-0 run to pull even, 37-37, and the game would be tied twice more, 39-39 and 41-41, before Endahl scored to give Saint Mary's the lead for good, 43-41.
 
Saint Mary's pushed its lead to six, 51-45 with 5:23 remaining and, after Carleton drained back-to-back baskets to make it a two-point game, 51-49, answered a Kaiser 3-pointer and a free throw by Kevin Gleason (Minneapolis, Minn.) to push the led back to six, 55-49 with 37 seconds on the clock.
 
Carleton would make one more run, on a 3-pointer by Beau Smit, but a pair of free throws by Kaiser iced the win for the Cardinals.
 
Quashingm Smith-Pugh (St. Paul, Minn.) joined Endahl and Kaiser in double figures, scoring 12 points for the Cardinals, who shot 43 percent from the field (21-for-49) and went 10 of 17 from the free throw line.
 
Carleton, which got a game-high 23 points from Tianen Chen and a double-double of 13 points and 14 rebounds by Kevin Grow, shot 34 percent from the field (19-for-56) and made just 12 of 20 free throw attempts.
 
The Cardinals step out of conference play on Tuesday, traveling to Chicago, Ill., for a 7 p.m. nonconference contest against Illinois Institute of Technology.