Saint Mary's University of Minnesota Athletics

By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
LA CROSSE, Wis. — Eli Cave (St. Paul, Minn.) kicked off his sophomore season in impressive style, pouring in a career-high 18 points in leading the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota men's basketball team to a season-opening 76-71 nonconference win over Crown Saturday afternoon.
 
And that career-best performance lasted … a whole 24 hours.
 
Cave was at it again Sunday evening against UW-La Crosse — posting a new career-best with 20 points against the Eagles.
 
Unfortunately, Cave's effort — not to mention 18 points from Kareem Anthony-Bello (Chicago, Ill.) — were not enough, as UW-La Crosse dealt the Cardinals a 70-60 nonconference setback at Mitchell Hall.
 
Anthony-Bello came out firing in the game's opening 20 minutes, as the sophomore erupted for 14 first-half points — including a 3-for-7 showing from behind the 3-point line.
 
Anthony-Bello drilled a 3-pointer to open the game and give the Cardinals a quick 3-0 lead. UW-La Crosse, however, answered with 10 of the next 12 points to grab a 10-5 advantage. Another Anthony-Bello 3-pointer made it 10-8, but the Eagles slowly pulled away, grabbing a 10-point lead —their biggest of the half — twice, including 35-25 with two minutes remaining.
 
An Anthony Bello jumper and a Kevin Gleason (Minneapolis, Minn.) 3-pointer pulled Saint Mary's to within five, 35-30, but the Eagles drilled a field goal right before the buzzer to give UW-La Crosse a seven-point, 37-30, lead at the break.
 
Saint Mary's trimmed the halftime deficit to two, 43-41 on a Sawyer Rosner (Phelps, Wis.) 3-pointer with six minutes elapsed the second half. UW-La Crosse responded with seven unanswered points — triggering a 12-2 run that pushed the Eagles' lead to a game-high  15, 58-43 with under eight minutes on the clock.
 
A pair of Cave free throws and a 3-pointer from Caden Freetly whittled the Eagles' lead to seven, 59-52, but that was as close as the Cardinals would get, as UW-La Crosse would not down a pair of field goals and seven free throws down the stretch to seal the win.
 
The Cardinals — who also got nine points and a team-high four assists from Gleason — shot 43 percent from the field (22-for-51) and drained eight 3-pointers. UW-La Crosse, meanwhile, hit on 52 percent of its field goals (26-for-50) with three 3-pointers, and was 15-for-22 from the free throw line — including 13-for-19 in the second half.
 
Brandon Manning scored a game-high 30 points and hauled in 11 rebounds to pace the Eagles, who also got 10 points from Terek Neshelm.
 
The Cardinals (1-1 overall) are now off until Saturday, when they head to New Ulm, Minn., for a 3 p.m. nonconference game against Martin Luther.