WINONA, Minn. — The last time the Saint Mary's University men's basketball team squared off against St. Scholastica, the Cardinals needed a career-high 35 points from
Raheem Anthony (Chicago, Ill.) — including the game-winning field goal with four seconds remaining in regulation — to post a 68-66 victory.
Saturday afternoon, when the two teams met again — this time at the Saint Mary's Gym — the Cardinals made sure history would not repeat itself.
At least part of that history.
Noah Frechette (Lakeville, Minn.) scored a career-high 24 points and
Owen Ziegler (Mount Horeb, Wis.) matched his career best, raining in 15 points on five 3-pointers, as the Cardinals picked up their second straight win over the Saints — this one a comfortable 77-59 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory.
The Cardinals came out firing right out of the gate, led by Frechette, who scored eight of Saint Mary's 10 points. Leading by as many as eight early, Saint Mary's found itself staring at a pair of one-point deficits — 18-17 and 20-19 — before putting together a 10-2 run — highlighted by the first of Ziegler's five 3-pointers on the afternoon — to take a seven-point 29-22 advantage.
Saint Mary's would build that lead to eight, 35-27, before settling for a four-point 37-33 advantage at the break.
The second half began the same way the first did — exactly — as Frechette opened with a mid-range jumper and followed that up with a 3-pointer for a 42-35 lead. Leading by eight, 56-48, midway through the half, Ziegler went to work, scoring 12 of SMU's next 14 points — all on 3-pointers — to help push the Cardinal lead to 13, 70-57, and the Saints never challenged the rest of the way.
Frechette — who had previously scored a then-career-high 18 points twice this season — went 10-for-16 from the field with four 3-pointers en route to his 24-point showing, while Ziegler finished 5 of 9 from behind the arc in equaling his career-best 15-point performance.
As a team, the Cardinals shot 48.4 percent from the field (30-for-62) with 11 3-pointers — one shy of their season high — and went 6 of 7 from the charity stripe.
After three straight home games, the Cardinals (5-8 MIAC, 7-10 overall) hit the road for their next two games, beginning on Wednesday, when they travel to Gustavus' Gus Young Court in St. Peter, Minn., for a 7 p.m. MIAC matchup against the Gusties.
