ST. PETER, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University men's basketball team took the court Wednesday evening with a bit of a swagger.
 
After all, Cameron Mallory (Joliet, Ill.) had just been named MIAC Offensive Player of the Week after scoring a career-high 27 points as part of a two-game, 20+ point week; Owen Ziegler (Mount Horeb, Wis.) had knocked down four 3-pointers to become the program's all-time leader in 3-pointers; and the Cardinals had racked up 83 points in routing Macalester 83-56 in their most recent game Saturday against Macalester.
 
In other words, the Cardinals were riding high.
 
Unfortunately, Gustavus — fueled by a half-ending 19-2 run — knocked the Cardinals back down to earth, as the Gusties dealt Saint Mary's an 88-68 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference setback at GAC's Gus Young Court.
 
The teams played a game of keep-away through the first 10 minutes of the opening half, with both teams playing with leads as big as three. A 12-5 run by the Cardinals — capped by a Breyton Buysman (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) 3-pointer — gave SMU its biggest lead of the half at 31-25 with 6:43 to play.
 
That final 6:43, however, belonged to the Gusties.
 
Gustavus rattled off 10 unanswered points to grab a 35-31 lead, and, after a pair of Mallory free throws made it a two-point game, 35-33, the Gusties promptly closed the half with nine consecutive points to take an 11-point, 44-33 lead into the locker room at the break.
 
GAC picked up right where it left off to open the second half, opening the frame with five unanswered points, before Buysman ended GAC's 24-2 run with a mid-range jumper to make it 49-35. The Gustavus lead climbed to 21, 61-40, five minutes into the second stanza, on an Ashton Dingmann 3-pointer, before the Cardinals whittled it back down to 17, 63-46, with 13 minutes to play.
 
That would be as close as SMU would get, however, as the Gusties held the Cardinals at bay the rest of the way in securing the conference win.
 
Mallory finished with a team-high 19 points for the Cardinals, going 6 of 11 from the field, with a 3-pointer and a 6-for-7 effort from the free throw line. Ziegler and Buysman also finished in double figures, netting 12 and 10 points, respectively.
 
As a team, Saint Mary's shot 44.1 percent from the field (26-for-59, but were just 9 of 25 from behind the 3-point line, and finished 7-for-16 from the charity stripe.
 
The Cardinals (2-8 MIAC, 3-11 overall) are back in action on Saturday, when they return home to the Saint Mary's Gym for a 3 p.m. conference matchup against Carleton.
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