MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University men's basketball team is officially sailing in uncharted waters.
 
With the trio of Jabari Sawyer, Raheem Anthony (Chicago, Ill.), and Owen Ziegler captaining the ship, scoring a combined 64 points — more than the entire Augsburg team combined — the Cardinals rolled to a 91-57 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory over Augsburg Monday evening.
 
And became the first team in program history to win eight consecutive games.
 
In a span of 33 days, the Cardinals' voyage has included a win over then-No. 7 UW-La Crosse, followed by back-to-back nonconference victories over North Park and Finlandia, and has enjoyed smooth sailing with five consecutive conference triumphs — including a 69-57 win over Saint John's on Jan. 7 that snapped a 29-game losing streak against the Johnnies.
 
And Monday evening, the Cardinals' ship docked at Augsburg's Si Melby Hall — and promptly made the Auggies victim No. 8.
 
Saint Mary's made it look easy against the Auggies, leading by as many as 26 in the first half, and pushing that lead to as many as 35 over the game's final 20 minutes.
 
The Auggies netted the first field goal of the game and led 5-2 early — but from there, it was all Cardinals. Sawyer and Anthony each scored 14 first-half points, and Saint Mary's pushed its lead to 26, 41-15 on back-to-back Anthony 3-pointers, before settling for a 19-point, 43-24 cushion heading into the halftime intermission.
 
And the 15-minute break did nothing to cool off the red-hot Cardinal offense.
 
Saint Mary's lead ballooned to 29, 62-33, before Augsburg put together a 9-0 run that got the Auggies back within 20, 62-42. Ziegler and Sawyer answered by scoring the next nine points, and, after an Augsburg free throw, Breyton Buysman (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) poured in back-to-back 3-pointers and Sawyer added a trey of his own — and the rout was on.
 
Sawyer finished with a career-high 22 points, while Anthony and Ziegler each chipped in 21, and Buysman delivered 11. As a team, Saint Mary's finished 35-for-64 from the field (54.7 percent), with 13 3-pointers — one shy of the single-game program record — and added an 8 of 9 showing from the free throw line.
 
The Cardinals (6-4 MIAC, 10-5 overall) will put their eight-game winning streak on the line on Wednesday, when they travel to Macalester's Leonard Center Gym for a 7 p.m. MIAC matchup against the Scots.
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