By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
WINONA, Minn. — It took the Saint Mary's University men's basketball team a little longer than coach Joe Fano would have liked to find its rhythm, but once the Cardinals did, Macalester did not know what hit them.
 
The Cardinals, staring at a 10-point, second-half deficit, erupted for 17 unanswered points and never looked back, dropping the Scots 66-61 Wednesday evening in a Minnesota intercollegiate Athletic Conference matchup at the Saint Mary's Gym.
 
The Cardinals were off and running from the opening tip, scoring the game's first seven points, only to have Macalester answer with eight straight for an 8-7 Scots' lead. Macalester pushed its lead to as many as seven, 25-18, but this time around it was the Cardinals who put together a big run, rattling off 10 unanswered points for a 28-25 lead with five minutes to play in the opening half.
 
Over those final five minutes, however, Saint Mary's managed just two points, while Macalester netted 11 to take a six-point, 36-30 lead into the locker room at the break.
 
Macalester methodically pushed its lead to 10, 50-40 — scoring 14 of the first 24 points of the second half — and appeared to have the Cardinals on the ropes.
 
Saint Mary's, however, responded by throwing a barrage of haymakers — pouring in 17 unanswered points in a four-minute span to turn that 10-point deficit into a seven-point, 57-50, lead with seven minutes to play.
 
And the Cardinals would not relinquish the lead.
 
The Scots whittled the Saint Mary's advantage to two, 63-61 with 15 seconds to play, but the Cardinals would drain three of four free throws down the stretch to ice the win.
 
Eli Cave (St. Paul, Minn.) delivered a 22-point, seven-rebound performance to lead the Cardinal offense, while Kareem Anthony-Bello (Chicago, Ill.) chipped in 17 points and also hauled in seven boards.
 
The Cardinals shot 40.7 percent from the field (24-for-59) and 15 of 22 from the free thorw line. Macalester, meanwhile, went 23-for-56 (41.1 percent) from the field, but hit on just 7 of 27 3-point attempts and finished 8 of 10 from the free throw line.
 
Gabriel Ramos scored 16 points and Jackson Henningfield chipped in 12 in the losing effort for the Scots.
 
The Cardinals (6-7 MIAC, 9-9 overall) hit the road on Saturday, traveling to Concordia's Memorial Auditorium in Moorhead, Minn., for a 1 p.m. conference contest against the Cobbers. The Scots (3-11 MIAC, 6-13 overall), meanwhile, are back on the road on Saturday, heading to Bethel's Robertson Center Gym in Arden Hills, Minn., to take on the Royals in a 1 p.m. MIAC showdown.