By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
ARDEN HILLS, Minn. — The Robertson Center Gym has not been kind to the Saint Mary's University men's basketball team — until Tuesday evening, that is.
 
The Cardinals, making their first post-season appearance in 35 years, took the court against fourth-seeded Bethel winless in their last 25 trips to Arden Hills, Minn. — including a 27-point, 84-57 loss earlier this year.
 
In fact, Saint Mary's had not left the Robertson Center court victorious since Feb. 9, 1994, when the Cardinals dealt the Royals an 82-68 setback.
 
That all changed Tuesday evening.
 
Eli Cave (St. Paul, Minn.) scored a game-high 27 points and the Cardinals built leads as big as 26 points in the second half, as Saint Mary's rolled to a 72-59 victory over Bethel in the teams' Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament quarterfinal contest.
 
With the win — the first post-season victory in program history — the Cardinals earned a trip to St. Paul, Minn., and a 7 p.m. Thursday showdown against second-seeded St. Thomas the tournament's semifinals. The Cardinals took the Tommies to the wire in their regular season-finale three days ago, falling 74-72 on UST layup with 0.9 seconds remaining.
 
Saint Mary's scored first against the Royals on a Sawyer Rosner (Phelps, Wis.) jumper, and Bethel answered with a 3-pointer by Jamal Davis.
 
That would be the one and only time the Royals would lead, however, as the Cardinals took control, scoring nine unanswered points as part of a 18-4 run to grab a 13-point lead, 20-7, with 8:39 to play in the opening half.
 
And the Cardinals were just getting warmed up.
 
Saint Mary's equaled that 13-point advantage, 23-10, on one of Kareem Anthony-Bello's (Chicago, Ill.) two first-half 3-pointers, and, after BU whittled the lead to seven, 23-16, Saint Mary's closed the half scoring 12 of the final 13 points — including eight straight points from Eli Cave (St. Paul, Minn.) — to grab a commanding 35-17 lead at the break.
 
The Cardinals knocked down three 3-pointers — one each from Jacob Chilson (Eau Claire, Wis.), Cave, and Anthony-Bello — and Cave added a traditional three-point and-one to push the Saint Mary's lead to 22, 47-25 just four minutes into the second half.
 
Saint Mary's continued to hit from all over the court — and the lead ballooned to 26, 53-27 on yet another Cave 3-pointer. Bethel cut the lead to 17, 55-38, with less than seven minutes to play, and got as close as 12 twice over the game's final seven minutes — but the Cardinals were not about to be denied, outscoring BU 5-4 down the stretch to seal the win.
 
Cave delivered a 10-for-25 performance from the field — including three 3-pointers — and a 4 of 6 effort from the free throw line en route to his 27-point effort. The junior, who played 39 of the game's 40 minutes, also hauled in six rebounds, and added two assists and a blocked shot.
 
Rosner and Anthony-Bello each chipped in 13 points for the Cardinals, who were 25-for-54 from the field (46.3 percent) with nine 3-pointers and went 13-for-25 from the free throw lione. Bethel, meanwhile, went 18-for-51 from the field (35.3 percent), but managed just a 5 of 26 showing from beyond the arc.
 
With the win, the Cardinals improved to 14-12 overall heading into Thursday's showdown against the Tommies. The 14 wins are the most since posting 15 victories during the 1984-85 campaign — which was also the only other time Saint Mary's has made a postseason appearance.