WINONA, Minn. — After being held to 55 points in each of their last two games, the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota men's basketball team turned up the offensive heat Monday evening in their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game against Macalester.
 
The Cardinals, behind the red-hot shooting of Wylie Ferron (Waconia, Minn.), equaled their 55-point effort of the previous two games with 15 minutes still to play in the second half against the Scots, and went on to finish the evening with 76 points—their fifth-highest offensive performance of the season.
 
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, that 76-point effort fell two points short, as Macalester netted the game's final six points—including the game-winning basket with 0.7 seconds remaining in regulation—to deal Saint Mary's a heartbreaking 78-76 setback at the Saint Mary's Gym.
 
Trailing by eight at the half, the Cardinals promptly knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers by Aaron Romportl (Stillwater, Minn.) and Bradley Hill (Matteson, Ill.) and got a layup from Ferron to regain the lead, 49-48—a lead they would not relinquish until Michael Gutierrez scored from underneath in the final second to seal the Macalester win.
 
Macalester got off to a quick start, scoring the game's first six points, but the Cardinals would respond, taking their first lead of the half, 9-8, on a pair of free throws by Quashingm Smith-Pugh (St. Paul, Minn.).
 
The Cardinals built their first-half lead to as many as five four times over the final eight minutes—including 37-32 on a basket by Eli Cave (St. Paul, Minn.) with 3:49 remaining.
 
The Scots, however, ended the half as red-hot as they started it, scoring 18 of the final 22 points—including a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Brett Olson—to give Macalester a seven-point, 48-41 advantage at the break.
 
Fueled by its 8-0 start to the second half, Saint Mary's would build its lead to a game-high 10, 70-60, on a Cave jumper to cap a 12-2 Cardinal run with 7:07 left on the clock.
 
Macalester whittled the Cardinal lead to four, 76-72, on a free throw by Brett Olson with one minute remaining, and, after a Saint Mary's missed free throw, the Scots made it a two-point game on a Gutierrez layup with 27 seconds to play.
 
Macalester converted a Saint Mary's turnover into a basket by Kareem Ismail with nine seconds on the clock to knot the game at 76-76, and another Cardinal turnover—this time on the inbounds following the Ismail bucket—gave the ball back to the Scots, who found Gutierrez underneath for the game-winning basket.
 
Ferron equaled his career high with a game-high 24 points for the Cardinals—including 18 points in the game's opening 20 minutes—while Hill chipped in 13 points and Smith-Pugh delivered nine points and 10 rebounds.
 
The Cardinals shot 51 percent from the field (27-for-53) and knocked down 5 of 12 3-pointers, while going 17-for-22 from the free throw line. Macalester, meanwhile, hit on 53 percent of its field goals—including a 5 of 15 effort from behind the arc—and were 15-for-19 from the charity stripe.
 
Wyatt Ferm finished with 22 points to lead four Scot players in double figures, with Gutierrez chipping in 17, and Ismail and Olson chipping  in 15 and 13 points, respectively.
 
The Cardinals (3-11 MIAC, 5-13 overall) are right back home at the Saint Mary's Gym on Wednesday, hosting Hamline in a 7 p.m. conference contest