WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University men's basketball team taught Bethel a valuable lesson Wednesday evening — never underestimate the potency of the Cardinal offense.
The Royals held the nation's 3-point field goal percentage-leading Cardinals to just 2 of 9 shooting from behind the arc in the first half — while limiting seemingly-unstoppable
Raheem Anthony (Chicago, Ill.) to just five points over the game's opening 20 minutes.
But it's a 40-minute game — and the Royals learned that the hard way.
Anthony scored 19 points in the game's final 20 minutes to finish with a game-high 24, and SMU drained 5 of 9 3-pointers after the break, as Saint Mary's cruised to a 77-65 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory at the Saint Mary's Gym.
With the win, the Cardinals pushed their winning streak to six — SMU's longest win streak since winning six in a row during the 2010-11 season. You have to go all the way back to the 1966-67 season to find the last time Saint Mary's has won seven consecutive games.
Bethel owned the early part of the first half, scoring the game's first seven points — including five from Payton Thomsen — and boasted a nine-point, 15-6 advantage five minutes into the opening half.
Unfazed by the sluggish start, the Cardinals clawed their way back, taking their first lead, 21-20, on a
Cameron Mallory (Joliet, Ill.) pull-up jumper with 8:48 remaining until halftime. Saint Mary's was staring at a three-point, 26-23 deficit with six minutes to play, before the Cardinal offense came to life — rattling off 11 unanswered points for their biggest lead of the half, 34-26 — and SMU took a 34-28 edge into the locker room at the break.
Bethel cut the deficit to five, 36-31 to open the second half, but Saint Mary's rattled off eight straight points to push its lead to 13, 44-31, three minutes in.
And with Anthony and
Breyton Buysman (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) providing a perfect inside-outside 1-2 punch, the Royals had no chance, and would get no closer than nine the rest of the way.
Anthony finished 9 of 17 from the field, including hitting 1 of 2 3-pointers, while going 5-for-8 from the free throw line en route to his game-high 24 points. The senior also added 10 rebounds in recording his eighth double-double of the season, while Buysman chipped in 17 points, and Sawyer and
Owen Ziegler (Mount Horeb, Wis.) added 12 and 10 points, respectively.
As a team, Saint Mary's shot 48.4 percent from the field (30-for-62) with seven 3-pointers, and went 10 of 14 from the free throw line. Bethel, meanwhile, shot 41.7 percent from the field (25-for-60) with four 3s, and went 11-for-16 from the free throw line. Doely scored 23 points and Joey Kidder added 20 for the Royals.
After four straight home games, the Cardinals (4-4 MIAC, 8-5 overall) hit the road on Saturday for the first of three consecutive road games, heading to Duluth, Minn., for a 1 p.m. MIAC showdown with St. Scholastica.
