By
MEAGHAN UPDIKE
Saint Mary's Sports Information Intern
WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota men's basketball team made a statement Saturday afternoon — and St. Thomas heard them loud and clear.
The Cardinals gave the sixth-ranked Tommies all they could handle in the teams' Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference showdown at the Saint Mary's Gym, before UST slowly pulled away in the final minutes in deal SMU a 94-81 setback.
Fueled by eight first-half 3-pointers, the Cardinals had the lead for nearly the entire first half — building leads as big as 12 points, before settling for a one-point, 43-42 advantage at the break.
Saint Mary's lost — then regained — the lead for the first six minutes of the second half, before St. Thomas grabbed the lead for good, 60-58, on a pair of free throws from Elijah Hannah.
Trailing by as many as eight, Saint Mary's whittled the lead to four, 73-69 on a layup by
Sawyer Rosner (Phelps, Wis.). The Cardinals again made it a four-point game, 76-72, with 5:30 to play in regulation on a free throw by
Eli Cave (St. Paul, Minn.), but the Tommies would slowly pull away, outscoring Saint Mary's 18-9 over the final five minutes to seal the win.
Cave finished with a team-leading 23 points — while adding 10 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season, and missed his first collegiate triple double by two assists.
Bradley Hill (Matteson, Ill.) — the Cardinals' lone senior — Rosner, and
Kevin Gleason (Minneapolis, Minn.) each added 16 points for the Cardinals, who shot 48 percent from the field — and finished with 12 3-pointers, two shy of the single-game school record — whiel adding a 9 of 11 effort from the free throw line.
The Tommies, who locked up the regular-season conference title and the No. 1 seed in th upcoming MIAC Playoffs, put four players in double figures, led by Connor Baier with 23.
The Cardinals close out their first year under head coach
Joe Fano with a 4-15 conference record, while finishing 8-17 overall.
