NORTHFIELD, Minn. — Saint Mary's University men's basketball team has got to be scratching his head and wondering what he ever did to upset the basketball gods.
Just two days after Concordia stole a victory from the Cardinals with a 3-pointer in the game's final three seconds to beat SMU 65-64, Fano and Co. once again had a conference win within their grasp in the waning seconds against Carleton — only to have it snatched away.
The Knights scored the game-tying bucket with six seconds remaining to send the game into overtime, and then outscored the Cardinals 14-4 in the five-minute extra session in dealing Saint Mary's a 76-66 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference setback Monday evening at West Gym.
After giving up four of the game's first six points, the Cardinals took charge, building leads as big as 10, 25-15, on a
Jabari Sawyer (Chicago, Ill.) 3-pointer with just under eight minutes to play. Carleton whittled the lead down to four, 31-27, with 1:18 on the clock, but SMU scored the final five points of the half — including a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by
Noah Frechette (Lakeville, Minn.) — to give the Cardinals a 36-27 lead at the break.
And it appeared as if the Cardinals were well on their way to a victory — and a possible home game in the opening round of the upcoming MIAC Playoffs — boasting what appeared to a commanding 11-point, 58-47 advantage with less than eight minutes remaining in the second half.
Over those final eight minutes— and the five-minute overtime period — however, Saint Mary's lead had slowly evaporated, and they were staring at a 60-60 deadlock withless than 30 seconds to play.
A
Raheem Anthony (Chicago, Ill.) layup with 13 seconds remaining in regulation gave the Cardinals a two-point, 62-60 lead, but Jeremy Beckler swished a step-back jumper with six seconds to go to knot the game at 62-62, and Saint Mary's last-second attempt for the win missed the mark — and the game headed to overtime.
Beckler opened the extra session with a 3-pointer, and the Knights never looked back, outscoring Saint Mary's 14-4 en route to the 10-point win.
Frechette finished with a team-high 23 points — one point shy of his career high — while Sawyer chipped in 13 points for the Cardinals, who shot 40 percent from the field (28-for-70), but were just 6 of 22 from behind the 3-point line.
Saint Mary's closed out the regular season at 6-13 in conference play and 8-15 overall. The Cardinals will now have to wait until after the rest of the conference wraps up play on Wednesday to see who and where they will open MIAC Playoff action.
