MOORHEAD, Minn. — After a one-game conference reprieve, the Saint Mary's men's basketball team was back to its nail-biting self Saturday afternoon.
 
The Cardinals, coming off an 85-66 win over Carleton last Saturday — their first MIAC game not decided by six points or less — found themselves mired in yet another fight-to-the-finish tilt against Concordia on Saturday.
 
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, the end result was eerily similar to their previous three MIAC nail-biters, as Concordia scored nine of the game's final 12 points in dealing Saint Mary's an 82-77 setback at Memorial Auditorium.
 
The loss overshadowed a Herculean effort by SMU's Raheem Anthony (Chicago, Ill.), who poured in a game-high 28 points — including 17 in the first half, when the Cardinal senior went 4 of 6 from 3-point range.
 
Breyton Buysman (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) set the tone from the get-go, as the Cardinal sophomore knocked down a 3-pointer for the game's first field goal — and a 3-0 SMU lead.
 
From there, the two teams would combine for 11 3-pointers — including eight by the Cardinals — in what proved to be a first-half shootout.
 
Concordia grabbed the early momentum building the biggest lead of the first half, 17-11, on a Jackson Jangula put-back with 11:43 to play. SMU would come roaring back, using a 17-7 run over the next five minutes to take a 28-24 advantage. SMU would equal that four-point cushion at 35-31 on a pair of Cameron Mallory (Joliet, Ill.) with 3:38 to play, only to have Concordia rattle off eight of the final 11 points of the half to take a one-point, 39-38 lead into the locker room at the break.
 
The halftime break did nothing to cool off the Cardinals' hot hand from downtown, as Ziegler kicked off the second half in much the same way they started the first — with a 3-pointer.
 
And from there, the race was on.
 
Ziegler scored Saint Mary's first eight points of the second half, keeping the Cardinals within one, 47-46. A Sawyer 3-pointer with 13:42 to play gave SMU a two-point, 51-49 lead. Over the next nine minutes, however, the Cobbers wrestled away the momentum and built what appeared to be a commanding 72-62 advantage with 4:42 remaining in regulation.
 
Saint Mary's clawed its way back to within one, 74-73 on a Buysman 3-pointer, but that would be as close as the Cardinals would get, as Concordia closed the game on a 9-3 run to seal the victory.
 
Anthony finished 10 of 17 from the field — including 4 of 7 from beyond the arc — ewhile going 4-for-8 from the free throw line en route to his 28 points. Ziegler — coming off back-to-back 8 3-point efforts, chipped in 16 points and Buysman finished with 11.
 
As a team, Saint Mary's — which hit on 8 of 15 3-pointers in the first half, and drained five more over the game's final 20 minutes — shot 44.8 percent from the field (26 of 59) with 13 3-pointers and a 12-for-16 performance from the charity stripe.
 
The Cardinals (1-4 MIAC, 2-5 overall) are back in action on Wednesday, when they head to UW-La Crosse's Mitchell Hall in La Crosse, Wis., for a 7 p.m. nonconference game against the nationally ranked Eagles.
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