DULUTH, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University and St. Scholastica men's basketball teams took the court Saturday afternoon both riding six-game streaks — the Cardinals' on the winning end and the Saints' on the losing end of the streak spectrum.
 
And when the final horn sounded at Reif Gym, both teams left with their streaks intact.
 
But there was nothing easy about SMU's seventh straight victory, as the Cardinals had to overcome a six-point halftime deficit and rally from 11 points down early in the second half to secure a 58-57 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory.
 
The Cardinals were unstoppable to open the contest, getting six unanswered points from Breyton Buysman (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) and four from Raheem Anthony (Chicago, Ill.) to race out to a 10-0 lead just four minutes into the opening half.
 
Unfortunately, for the second straight Saturday contest, the final minutes of the first half were not kind to the Cardinals.
 
Just a week after Saint John's rattled off 21 straight points to transform a 12-point Saint Mary's lead into a nine-point Cardinal deficit at the break, St. Scholastica answered SMU's 10-0 run with a 14-0 outburst of its own — and with 10:31 to play, the Cardinals were staring at a five-point deficit.
 
SMU would whittle the lead to two, 22-20, on a Jabari Sawyer (Chicago, Ill.) 3-pointer with 2:23 remaining, only to have the Saints close the half on a 9-1 run to take a six-point, 29-23 advantage into the locker room at the break.
 
And, as was the case against the Johnnies — in which Saint Mary's outscored SJU 48-27 over the game's final 20 minutes en route to a 69-57 victory — the Cardinals regained their composure coming out of the break against the Saints.
 
Fueled by eight straight points from Anthony, the Cardinals trimmed the St. Scholastica lead — which had ballooned to 11 — to two, 44-42 with 9:54 remaining in regulation. Anthony, however, was whistled for his fourth foul on CSS's next possession and headed to the bench for the next five minutes.
 
Enter Ziegler.
 
The junior delivered eight straight points of his own, including back-to-back 3-pointers — the second of which gave Saint Mary's a 49-47 lead with just over seven minutes to play. A Sawyer 3-pointer and a bucket by Ziegler gave SMU a four-point, 56-52 advantage, but the Saints would not go away, answering with five consecutive points for a 57-56 lead with 1:40 on the clock.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Two Cameron Mallory (Joliet, Ill.) free throws put Saint Mary's back in front, 58-57. CSS missed a 3-pointer on its next possession, with Buysman grabbing the rebound and getting fouled. The SMU junior, however, missed both free throws and the Saints had one last chance. CSS got the ball across half court with one second on the clock, and, after a Saints' timeout, Connor Bich came up empty on a last-gasp 3-pointer — and win No. 7 was in the books for the Cardinals.
 
Anthony finished with a team-high 18 points, going 7 of 16 from the field and 4-for-6 from the free throw line, while Sawyer chipped in 12 points and Ziegler added 11.
 
As a team, Saint Mary's shot 36.2 percent from the field (21-for-58) — managing just 6 of 20 3-point attempts — and going 10-for-15 from the line. CSS, which was led by Noah Winsett's game-high 19 points, went 20-for-54 from the field (37.0 %), including 7 of 25 from behind the arc, and also finished 10 of 15 from the charity stripe.
 
The Cardinals (5-4 MIAC, 9-5 overall) will put their seven-game win streak on the line on Monday, when they head to Augsburg's Si Melby Hall in Minneapolis, Minn., for a 7 p.m. conference matchup against the Auggies. Read Full Article