DULUTH, Minn. – For Saint Mary's University men's basketball head coach
Joe Fano,
Raheem Anthony's showing against St. Scholastica was a dream performance
For the Saints, however, it was nothing more than a nightmare.
Anthony was a one-man wrecking crew for the Cardinals, scoring a career-high 35 points — including the game-winning bucket with four seconds remaining in regulation — to lift the Cardinals to a 68-66 victory Saturday afternoon at Reif Gym.
Anthony accounted for 15 of the team's 30 first-half points — including netting SMU's first two buckets to grab an early 4-3 lead. From there, however, the Saints took control, building a 13-point, 28-15, with less than 10 minutes to play.
Saint Mary's cut the Saints' lead to five, 29-24 on a
Caden Freetly (Farmington, Minn.) 3-pointer that capped a 9-1 Saint Mary's run, but CSS would push the advantage back to 11, 41-30 at the break.
For the Cardinals, that 11-point halftime deficit was no big deal — thanks in large part to Anthony, who scored 20 points in the game's final 20 minutes.
Saint Mary's erupted for 24 points in the first 10 minutes of the second half, erasing that 11-point deficit and giving the Cardinals a one-point, 54-53 advantage.
From there, it was all Anthony, as the junior scored the Cardinals' next 10 points, giving Saint Mary's its biggest lead of the game, 64-55 with 7:49 to play in regulation.
St. Scholastica would make one final push, using an 11-2 run to pull even with the Cardinals, 66-66, with 30 seconds — only to have Anthony rain on their comeback parade with a game-winning layup with four seconds remaining.
Anthony finished 16-for-27 from the field with one 3-pointer and went 2-for-6 from the field en route to his career-high 35 points. He also added 10 rebounds for his first double-double of the season. As a team, the Cardinals shot 40.6 percent from the field (28-for-64) with eight 3-pointers, while going 8 of 15 from the free throw line.
Saint Mary's (3-2 MIAC, 3-3 overall) are back in action on Wednesday, heading to St. Olaf's Skoglund Center Gym in Northfield, Minn., for a 7 p.m. conference showdown against the Oles.
