By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
MOORHEAD, Minn. — Saturday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference showdown against Concordia was a perfect "trap" game for the Saint Mary's University men's basketball team.
 
After all, the Cardinals were coming off an emotional, come-from-behind win over Macalester on Wednesday — their ninth win of the season — while the host Cobbers entered the matchup in the midst of a 14-game losing streak.
 
The trap lasted all of three minutes — thanks to a dominating first half from the Cardinals' Eli Cave (St. Paul, Minn.).
 
Cave was perfect from the field — going 6-for-6 with four 3-pointers — in the game's opening 20 minutes, as the Cardinals erased an early 8-0 Cobber lead and rolled to a commanding 78-62 conference win at Memorial Auditorium
 
The Cobbers scored the game's first eight points — sandwiching a pair of 3-pointers from Tommy Schyma around a bucket by Bryden Urie — only to have Saint Mary's answer with 11 straight points to take its first lead, 11-8, with 14:40 to play in the opening half.
 
With the score deadlocked at 20-20, the Cardinals took control, scoring 13 straight points as part of a 19-1 run to take their biggest lead of the half, 39-21 with under six minutes to play. Concordia would close the half on a 9-2 run to whittle Saint Mary's lead to 11, 42-31 at the break.
 
The Cobbers started the second half in much the same way they started the first, whittled Saint Mary's lead to seven on two occasions, including 44-37 four minutes into the half.
 
And the Cardinals answered in much the same way they did in the opening half, scoring 15 of the next 17 points to make it a 20-point, 59-39 advantage — and the Cobbers never threatened the rest of the way, as Saint Mary's held leads of 20 or more points until CC closed the half with a 6-2 run to make the final margin of victory 16, 78-62.
 
Cave closed out the game with 27 points — going 11-for-15 from the field and 4-for 6 from the 3-point line — while Kareem Anthony-Bello (Chicago, Ill.) chipped in 20 points, one point shy of his career-high. Greg Martin (Oklahoma City, Okla.) also finished in double figures for the Cardinals, scoring 10 points.
 
Saint Mary's, which collected its 10^th victory of the season with Saturday's win — the most wins since the Cardinals finished 11-13 in 1999-2000 — shot 44.8 percent from the field (30-for-67) and post a 13-for-29 effort from behind the 3-point line.
 
Concordia, which was led by Schyma with 25 and John Reiten with 14 — hit 21 of 54 field goals (38.9 percent), but were just 5 of 18 from the 3-point line.
 
The Cardinals (7-7 MIAC, 10-9 overall) hit the road on Wednesday, heading to Augsburg's Si Melby Hall in Minneapolis, Minn., for a 7 p.m. conference matchup against the Auggies. The Cobbers (0-14 MIAC, 2-17 overall) are right back in action on Monday, returning home to Memorial Auditorium in Moorhead, Minn., for a 7 p.m. contest against Hamline in a game originally scheduled for Jan. 18.