By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
ARDEN HILLS, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University and Bethel men's basketball team's headed into Saturday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference showdown as mirror images of each other — both boasting 3-1 conference marks and 6-3 overall records.
 
Unfortunately, when the Cardinals' looked in the mirror following the afternoon matchup, their offense looked nothing like the high-flying Royals', as Bethel used a number of lengthy runs — not to mention knocking down 14 3-pointers — in dealing Saint Mary's an 84-57 conference setback at Robertson Center Gym.
 
The Cardinals came out firing from the opening tip, getting back-to-back 3-pointers from Kevin Gleason (Minneapolis, Minn.) and Kareem Anthony-Bello (Chicago, Ill.) — as well as a pair of free throws from Sawyer Rosner (Phelps, Wis.) — to take a quick, 8-2 advantage.
 
Saint Mary's would equal that six-point lead, 11-5, on a jumper by Eli Cave (St. Paul, Minn.) with 13:39 remaining. From there, however, the Royals' offense came to life, putting together a 15-0 run to turn that six-point Cardinal lead into a seven-point, 18-11 BU advantage. The Cardinals got to within four, 28-24 on another Cave field goal, but the Royals closed the half on a 12-2 run — including an Isaiah Carver-Bagley 3-pointer at the buzzer — to give Bethel a 40-26 lead at the break.
 
Back-to-back field goals by Jack Jenson to open the second half pushed the Royals' lead to 44-18 — and Bethel was just getting warmed up. The Royals built their lead to 30, 70-40 with nine minutes remaining and the Cardinals never recovered in dropping their second conference contest of the season.
 
Gleason closed out the game with a team-leading 12 points for the Cardinals, who shot 36.4 percent from the field (20-for-55) from the field — but were just 5 of 21 from behind the arc. Eli Cave (St. Paul, Minn.) also scored in double figures for Saint Mary's, finishing with 10 points, while Greg Martin (Oklahoma City, Okla.) chipped in nine.
 
Bethel put five players in double figures — Jenson (15), Carver-Bagley (15), Granger Kingland (14), Jamal Davis (11), and Hudson Urbanus (10) — and finished 20-for-51 (36.4 percent) from the field.
 
The Cardinals (3-2 MIAC, 6-4 overall) are right back in action on Monday, returning home to the Saint Mary's Gym for a 7 p.m. conference showdown against Augsburg. The Royals (4-1 MIAC, 7-3 overall) hit the road again on Monday, traveling to Concordia's Memorial Auditorium in Moorhead, Minn., for a 7 p.m. MIAC matchup against the Cobbers.