ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota men's basketball team struggled to get its offense on track in its regular-season finale Saturday afternoon.
 
And against a team as high-powered as St. Thomas—the seventh-ranked team in the country—an off-shooting night is not what the Cardinals could afford.
 
St. Thomas scored 23 of the final 30 points of the first half, and added a 19-3 run early in the second, as the Tommies pulled away and handed Saint Mary's a 77-48 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference setback at Schoenecker Arena.
 
The Cardinals got off to a quick start, grabbing an early 7-4 lead, and trailed by just four, 24-20, following Mark Schumacher's (Perham, Minn.) layup and converted free throw with nine minutes remaining in the opening half.
 
Those final nine minutes, however, belonged to the Tommies, who closed the half on a 23-7 run, holding the Cardinals to just seven points—3-point field goals by Bradley Hill (Matteson, Ill.) and Kai Endahl (Mendota Heights, Minn.), and a free throw by Quashingm Smith-Pugh (St. Paul, Minn.)—to take a 47-27 lead into the halftime intermission.
 
The Cardinals scored the first five points to open the second half—getting a pair of free throws from Wylie Ferron (Waconia, Minn.) and a 3-pointer by Kevin Gleason (Minneapolis, Minn.)—to get within 47-32.
 
St. Thomas, however, answered with a run of its own, as the Tommies scored 19 of the next 22 points—a Ferron basket and free throw accounting for the Cardinals' three points in that stretch—to put the game out of reach.
 
Gleason scored a team-high 10 points for the Cardinals—who made seven of their 16 field goals from behind the 3-point line. Saint Mary's struggled to find its shooting touch all afternoon, shooting just 28 percent (16 of 57) from the field, while going 9 of 12 from the free throw line
 
St. Thomas put three players in double figures, led by Grant Shaeffer with 15. Jimmy Remke added 14 off the bench, and Ryan Saarela contributed a double-double of 11 points and 12 rebounds for the Tommies (18-2 MIAC, 23-2 overall), who have now won 19 of their last 20 contests.
 
The Cardinals (7-13 MIAC, 9-16 overall) close out the season with their most conference wins since 2009-10 and their most overall victories since the 2010-11 campaign.