MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University men's basketball team certainly has had a flair for the dramatic of late.
 
Just two days after scoring the game's final 15 points in rallying for a 66-58 road win over Bethel, the Cardinals were at it again Monday night at Augsburg.
 
The Cardinals trailed by as many as 15 in the first half against the Auggies, and were staring at a 10-point deficit with less than eight minutes remaining in regulation. Saint Mary's, however, still had a few tricks up their sleeve — none more impressive than the 3-pointer Kareem Anthony-Bello (Chicago, Ill.) pulled out of his hat to give Saint Mary's the lead for good with 21 seconds remaining to spark SMU's 81-79, come-from-behind victory at Si Melby Hall.
 
The victory not only extended Saint Mary's winning streak to five straight, but it also snapped a 13-game losing streak on the Auggies' home court. SMU had not won at Si Melby Hall since beating the Auggies 80-68 on Feb. 10, 2007.
 
Trailing by 10 at the break, the Cardinals pulled within two twice — 53-51 and 57-55 — but the Auggies would push their advantage back to 10, 73-63 on a pair of James Streeter free throws with seven minutes to play.
 
Saint Mary's outscored the Auggies 13-2 to grab a 76-75 advantage — its first lead since a 5-4 lead early in the first half. Augsburg regained the lead, 77-76 on a pair of free throws by Jack Sorenson with 41 seconds to play — setting up Anthony-Bello's clutch, 3-point laser with 16 ticks on the clock.
 
An Eli Cave (St. Paul, Minn.) free throw made in an 80-77 Saint Mary's advantage, and after Matt Carik hit a pair of free throws to cut the lead to one, 80-79 with six seconds left, the Auggies quickly fouled Owen Zielger (Mount Horeb, Wis.), who made one of two free throws to make it a two-point game again, 81-79.
 
Augsburg would inbound the ball to Carik, who went coast-to-coast in the game's final five seconds, but his running layup at the buzzer failed to connect — sealing the Cardinals' fifth consecutive victory.
 
The Auggies had the hot hand in the first half — especially from behind the free throw line, as Augsburg knocked down eight first-half 3s, building leads as big as 15 points once (31-16) and 14 points twice — 36-22 and 38-24 — before the Cardinals' offense came to life.
 
SMU whittled the lead to seven, 41-34, with just under two minutes to play in the half, but Augsburg would answer, scoring five unanswered points to push its lead back to 12, 46-34.  Eli Cave (St. Paul, Minn.) — the reigning MIAC Athlete of the Week — closed out the scoring with a field goal to leave the Cardinals staring at a 10-point, 46-36, deficit at the break.
 
Raheem Anthony (Chicago, Ill.) led the Cardinals in scoring, pouring in 25 points on 11 of 16 shooting, while Cave delivered his first double-double of the season with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Anthony-Bello and Caden Freetly (Farmington, Minn.) each chipped in 11 points for the Cardinals, who shot 54.2 percent from the field (32-for-59) with nine 3-pointers, while going 8 of 19 from the free throw line.
 
The Cardinals (2-0 MIAC, 5-1 overall) are back in action on Wednesday, heading to Gustavus' Gus Young Court in St. Peter, Minn., for a 7 p.m. conference contest against the Gusties.