WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University men's basketball team kicked off a frenetic eight-day stretch of games in convincing fashion Monday afternoon.
The Cardinals, who play four games over an eight-day span, got a double-double from
Raheem Anthony (Chicago, Ill.) — in the first half — and had two other players score in double figures, as Saint Mary's rolled to a 69-58 win over Crown at the Saint Mary's Gym.
Anthony, coming off an all-tournament performance in the D3hoops.com Classic in SMU's previous two games in Las Vegas, Nev., was a one-man wrecking crew, scoring 15 points and adding 10 rebounds in the game's opening 20 minutes en route to his third double-double of the season — a 20-point, 15-rebound effort.
The Cardinals and Storm both had the opportunity to play with the lead through the game's opening 20 minutes.
Saint Mary's scored the first six points of the contest for its largest lead of the half, and did not relinquish the advantage until Christian Oldenettel drained a 3-pointer with 11 minutes to play to give Crown its first lead of the game, 14-13.
The Storm would push their lead to as many as seven twice — 25-18 and 29-22 — before the Cardinals came "storming back," scoring 12 of the final 13 points of the half to take a 34-30 cushion into the locker room at the break.
Saint Mary's came out firing to open the second half, knocking down five 3-pointers in the first seven minutes to push its four-point halftime lead to 13, 53-40, with 12:48 on the clock. Crown, however, would not go quietly, putting together a 10-0 run over the next five minutes to whittle the Cardinal lead to three, 53-50.
That would be as close as the Storm would get, as the Cardinals netted 14 of the game's final 22 points to seal their fifth win of the season.
Along with Anthony's 20 points — which came on 8 of 12 shooting from the field, with one 3-pointer, and a 3-for-8 effort from the free throw line,
Noah Frechette (Lakeville, Minn.) equaled his career high with his second straight 18-point performance, while
Caden Freetly (Farmington, Minn.) recorded his first double-double of the season, chipping in 11 points and 10 rebounds.
As a team, the Cardinals shot 39.1 percent from the field (25-for-64) with eight 3-pointers, and finished 11 of 24 from the charity stripe. Crown, which was led by Seth Royston with 12 points and Cade Carroll with 11, went 19 of 61 from the field (31.1 percent) — including 10 of 33 from beyond the arc — and went 10-for-16 from the free throw line.
The Cardinals, who evened their overall record at 5-5, return to Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play on Wednesday, when they host Gustavus in a 7 p.m. contest at the Saint Mary's Gym.
