By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
ARDEN HILLS, Minn. — Getting off to a quick start against Bethel has not been easy for the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota men's basketball team this season.
 
In the teams' first meeting on Dec. 9, the Royals rattled off 16 unanswered points to open the game in dealing the Cardinals an 81-60 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference setback at the Saint Mary's Gym.
 
Saturday afternoon, the two teams squared off at Robertson Center Gym—and the Royals were back up to their game-opening tricks.
 
Bethel scored 12 of the game's first 14 points and slowly pulled away in handing the Cardinals an 81-40 conference setback.
 
Bethel jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but a James Cullen (Western Springs, Ill.) field goal made it a 3-2 game. From there, however, the Royals scored nine straight points to make it 12-2.
 
And the Royals were just getting warmed up.
 
Saint Mary's clawed within six, 14-8—thanks to a field goal by Brady Stevens and back-to-back baskets by Kareem Anthony-Bello (Chicago, Ill.)—but the Royals responded with a 17-2 outburst, highlighted by five 3-pointers to push their lead to 31-10 with six minutes to play.
 
David Lindstrand (Lakeville, Minn.) and Jakob Bailey (Cameron, Wis.) knocked down back-to-back baskets for the Cardinals to make it 31-14, only to have Bethel close the half on a 14-4 run—capped by two more 3-pointers to give the Royals a 45-18 lead at the break.
 
After going 0-for-10 from behind the 3-point line in the first half, the Cardinals came out firing to open the second half, knocking down four 3-pointers—one from Sawyer Rosner (Phelps, Wis.) and back-to-back treys from Anthony-Bello—to make it a 52-29 BU lead with less than three minutes in.
 
Unfortunately, over the final 17 minutes, the Cardinals' shooting touch turned ice cold, as Bethel—fueled by an 18-0 outburst—outscored Saint Mary's 29-11 in sealing the victory.
 
Anthony-Bello finished with a team-high 15 points—including 11 in the second half—to lead the way for the Cardinals, who shot 27.6 percent from the field (16-for-58), and finished just 4 of 19 from behind the arc.
 
Bethel—shooting 51.7 percent from the field (30-for-58) with 10 3-pointers, post3ed three players in double figures. Granger Kingland led the way, netting a game-high 16 points, with Riley Dearring and Jack Jenson chipping in 10 points each.
 
The Cardinals (0-15 MIAC, 1-19 overall) are back in Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play on Monday, hosting Saint John's in a 7 p.m. matchup at the Saint Mary's Gym.