ST. PAUL, Minn. — For the second time in four days, the Saint Mary's University men's basketball team found itself playing on the road.
 
This time around, however, the road proved much more favorable to Saint Mary's — thanks in large part to a devastating 1-2 punch.
 
Raheem Anthony (Chicago, Ill.) scored a team-high 25 points and added 10 rebounds, and Eli Cave (St. Paul, Minn.) delivered 22 points, as the high-scoring tandem led the Cardinals to a 77-66 nonconference win over Hamline at Hutton Arena Monday evening.
 
To say Cave got off to a red-hot start would be an understatement — to say the least — as the senior poured in 13 points in the game's opening four minutes to account for all the Cardinals scoring — and give SMU a 13-11 advantage.
 
The problem was, as good as Cave was in the early going, HU's Luke Siwek was even better, as the junior guard went 9 of 10 from the field with a pair of 3-pointers for 22 points in the game's opening 20 minutes.
 
The Cardinals, who led by as many as six in the first half, held a four-point, 31-27 edge on an Anthony three-point play with just over three minutes remaining. Over those final three minutes, however, Hamline went on a half-ending 12-2 run to take a 39-33 lead into the locker room at the break.
 
While Cave was busy throwing offensive haymakers in the first half, Anthony took over the offensive reigns — and delivered the knockout punch — in the second, scoring 14 of his 25 points.
 
Anthony and Cave combined for 11 unanswered points — Cave drilling back-to-back 3-pointes, with Anthony adding five points — as SMU opened the second half on an 11-0 run to turn its six-point, 39-33 deficit into a five-point, 44-39 advantage.
 
Saint Mary's methodically padded its lead to 12, 59-47 midway through the second half on back-to-back baskets by Anthony — and the Pipers would never get closer than 11 points the rest of the way.
 
Anthony went 10-for-16 from the field with four 3-pointers en route to his 25-point night — four points shy of his career high — while Cave finished 8 of 18 with five 3-pointers.
 
As a team, Saint Mary's shot 47.6 percent from the field (30-for-63) — including 11 of 25 from behind the arc — while going 6 of 17 from the free throw line. Hamline, meanwhile, finished 20 of 56 from the field (35.7 percent) with six 3-pointers and hit on 20 of 24 free throw attempts.
 
After his 22-point first-half outburst, Saint Mary's held Siwek to just four points in the game's final 20 minutes, while Jake Larson, Marshall Holland, and Michael Dillon all chipped in 10 points for the Pipers (1-1 overall).
 
The Cardinals (1-1 overall) are back in action on Wednesday, when they return home to the Saint Mary's Gym for a 7 p.m. nonconference game against Gustavus.