LAS VEGAS, Nev. — The Saint Mary's University men's basketball team has faced many familiar foes during its first eight games of the 2021-22 season.
 
Thursday evening, however, was not one of those "familiar" foes.
 
The Cardinals took the court against the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor for the first time in program history — and Saint Mary's got an first-hand look at why the Cru are ranked among the best in the country.
 
Led by Preseason All-American Josiah Johnson — who scored a game-high 25 points, including 18 in the second half — the 19th-ranked Cru used a potent inside-outside one-two combination to deal the Cardinals an 84-64 setback during the final day of the D3hoops.com Classic.
 
It was raining threes all night, as the two teams attempted a combined 52 3-pointers — with the Cru going 12-for-26 from behind the arc, while the Cardinals finished 7 of 26.
 
Mary Hardin-Baylor came out firing in the opening minutes of the first half, knocking down four of its first seven 3-point attempts for an early 14-6 lead — with all six Cardinal points coming from Noah Frechette (Lakeville, Minn.), who would close the half with 12 points.
 
The Cru continued to pull away, using an 11-0 run to build their lead to as many as 20, 38-18, with 3:33 remaining until halftime. The Cardinals, however, made the most of that final 3:33, outscoring UMHB 13-3 to cut the deficit to nine, 40-19 at the break.
 
After surrendering seven of the first 10 points to open the second half, the Cardinals began chipping away at the UMHB lead, getting within eight, 49-41 on a Frechette jumper with 15:31 to play. The Cru answered, pushing the lead back to 16 twice — including 63-47 on a Johnson 3-pointer with 10 minutes to go.
 
The Cardinals would once again whittle the Cru lead to single digits — 66-57 on an Owen Ziegler (Mount Horeb, Wis.) 3-pointer with 7:24 on the clock and 68-59 on a Cameron Mallory (Joliet, Ill.) bucket less than a minute later.
 
That would be as close as the Cardinals would get, however, as the Cru closed the game by outscoring SMU 16-4 in the final 6:44 to seal their eighth win in nine tries this season.
 
Frechette, who netted a then-career-high 16 points in SMU's tournament-opening win over UW-Superior on Tuesday, improved his single-game career-best by two points, lead the Cardinals with 18 points on 8 of 16 shooting and a 2-for-2 effort from the free throw line.
 
Ziegler chipped in 12 points, while Anthony — the team's leading scorer, who was coming off a 22-point, 14-rebound, nine-assist effort against the Yellowjackets Tuesday — was held to 10 points.
 
As a team, the Cardinals shot 35.2 percent from the field, going 25-for-71 with seven 3-pointers, while adding a 7 of 12 effort from the free throw line. Mary Hardin-Baylor, meanwhile, shot a sizzling 52.4 percent from the field (33-for-63) with 12 treys and was a near-perfect 6-for-7 from the charity stripe.
 
Saint Mary's (4-5 overall) is right back in action on Monday, as the Cardinals welcome Crown to the Saint Mary's Gym for a 7 p.m. nonconference contest.