WINONA, Minn. — When the Saint Mary's men's basketball team squared off against Augustana (Ill.) a year ago, the Vikings needed overtime to deal the Cardinals a six-point, 79-73 setback.
 
The two teams were back at it for a second straight year on Saturday — and the end result was once again a fight-to-the-finish nailbiter.
 
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, that end result once again favored Augustana, as the Vikings held off a furious late-game Saint Mary's rally to escape the Saint Mary's Gym with an 81-73 nonconference victory.
 
The Cardinals did a lot of bending, but they refused to break, over the game's opening 20 minutes. SMU grabbed the early advantage and built a four-point 7-3 lead on an Owen Ziegler (Mount Horeb, Wis.) 3-pointers. From there, however, the Vikings took over, rattling off eight unanswered points for a five-point, 14-9 cushion. Augustana would push that advantage to as many as 13, 34-21, with 5:38 to play in the opening half.
 
Enter the bending, but not breaking.
 
Saint Mary's would close the half on an 11-5 run — including a buzzer-beating trey by Ziegler — to cut the deficit to four, 37-33 heading to the break.
 
Raheem Anthony (Chicago, Ill.) knocked down a 3-pointer coming out of the halftime break to get the Cardinals within one, 37-36. That would be one of the few offensive highlights early in the second half, as Augustana went on a 25-4 run to build its biggest lead of the game, 62-40 with 10:15 remaining in regulation.
 
Bending … but not breaking.
 
Saint Mary's slowly clawed its way out of that 22-point hole, whittling the Viking lead to 10, 72-62 on a pair of Breyton Buysman (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) free throws with just under two minutes on the clock. Augustana answered by scoring seven of the next nine point regain a 14-point, 79-65 edge.
 
The Cardinals would make one final push, scoring eight of the game's final 10 points, but it was not enough to complete the come-from-behind victory.
 
For the second game in a row, the Cardinals put four players in double figures, led by Anthony with a team-best 15 points. Buysman chipped in 13, and Ziegler and Cameron Mallory (Joliet, Ill.) finished with 12 and 11 points, respectively. Anthony added 10 rebounds to his 15-point showing for his second double-double in as many games.
 
As a team, Saint Mary's shot 40.3 percent from the field (25-for-62) with a season-high eight 3-pointers, and added a 15-for-18 showing from the free throw line.
 
The Cardinals (1-1 overall) are now off until next Saturday, when they travel to Gustavus' Gus Young Court in St. Peter, Minn., to kick off Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play with a 1 p.m. matchup against the Gusties.
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