By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
ST. PAUL, Minn. — It has been a sweet season for the Saint Mary's University men's basketball team — taking the court against St. Thomas Thursday evening in the midst of its first postseason tournament appearance in 35 years.
 
And an MIAC semifinal win against the Tommies — the nation's second-ranked team — would be the icing on the cake for the Cardinals.
 
St. Thomas, however, had its own sweet tooth — in the form of Tommy Anderson, who scored 11 of his 17 points in the second half, as the Tommies outscored Saint Mary's 45-32 over the game's final 20 minutes in ousting the Cardinals 79-66 at Schoenecker Arena.
 
But as a wise man once noted, "the Cardinals may not have gotten the icing — but they still have the cake."
 
A cake that included the program's first-ever postseason victory, a 14-12 overall record and a 10-10 conference mark — the most overall wins since going 15-10 during the 1984-85 campaign, and the most MIAC victories since going 11-9 during the 1999-2000 season.
 
The Cardinals and Tommies were no strangers to one another heading into Thursday's conference semifinal, having just met in the teams' regular-season finale five days ago — a finale that saw St. Thomas escape with a 74-72 win, thanks to a game-winning layup by Riley Miller with 0.9 seconds remaining.
 
This time around, however, the roles were reversed, as the Tommies — who trailed by as many as 19 points in the second half of Saturday's regular-season finale against Saint Mary's — jumped out to the early lead, and the Cardinals were the ones playing catch-up.
 
Both teams came out swinging, with Sawyer Rosner (Phelps, Wis.) and Anders Nelson exchanging 3-point haymakers out of the gate. St. Thomas, however, broke away from a 15-15 deadlock with seven unanswered points for the biggest lead of the half, 24-17, with 6:21 to play until halftime.
 
The lead did not last long, as Saint Mary's used an 8-1 run of its own to knot the game at 25-25 with less than three minutes remaining. An Eli Cave (St. Paul, Minn.) 3-pointer gave the Cardinals a 29-28 lead, and after Hedstrom put the Tommies back in front on their next possession, Raheem Anthony (Chicago, Ill.) drilled back-to-back 3-pointers on the Cardinals' next two possessions — his third and fourth trey of the half — to give Saint Mary's a 34-32 lead.
 
UST's Elijah Hannah would beat the buzzer on the Tommies' final possession of the half to knot the game at the break, 34-34 — and set the stage for another nail-biting second half.
 
Cave gave the Cardinals a two-point lead out of the break, but that would be the last time they would play with the lead, as St. Thomas outscored Saint Mary's 24-13 in the first 10 minutes to grab a 58-47 advantage.
 
St. Thomas pushed the lead to as many as 15, 58-43 and led by 14, 65-51 with 6:20 on the clock. The Cardinals whittled the lead to seven twice — 67-60 on a Greg Martin (Oklahoma City, Okla.) free throw and 69-62 on a pair of free throws from Kareem Anthony-Bello (Chicago, Ill.) — but that was as close as they would get, as St. Thomas ended the game on a 10-4 run to seal the win.
 
Anthony finished with a game-high 28 points, while Cave finished with 10 points, and Martin and Anthony-Bello chipped in nine and eight points, respectively. Anthony-Bello also led the team with seven rebounds, one more than Cave.
 
Nelson led four Tommies in double figures with 18 points, one more than Anderson, with Burt Hedstrom and Miller each adding 12 points.
 
With the win, St. Thomas (23-2 overall) moves on to Saturday's MIAC Tournament title game, heading to Saint John's Sexton Arena in Collegeville, Minn., for a 7 p.m. showdown against top-seeded Saint John's. The Johnnies punched their ticket to the title game with a 71-43 win over sixth-seeded St. Olaf Thursday evening.