MOORHEAD, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University men's basketball team found itself in a familiar position after 20 minutes of play Wednesday evening against Concordia — trailing.
 
And for the second straight game, the Cardinals — who trailed by nine at the half before erupting for a season-high 52 points in the second half in rallying to beat Bethel 85-76 last Saturday —put together a Herculean second half against the Cobbers, completing erasing a 15-point deficit.
 
This time around, however, that second-half rally stalled in the waning minutes, as Concordia overcame a 16-0 second-half Cardinal outburst, closing the contest by scoring 20 of the game's final 25 points in dealing Saint Mary's a 72-58 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference setback.
 
The Cardinals got a game-opening 3-pointer from Cameron Mallory (Joliet, Ill.), but the Cobbers would respond by scoring seven unanswered points, and 14 of the next 16, to take their biggest lead of the half, 14-9.
 
Saint Mary's whittled away at the CC lead, finally grabbing its first lead of the contest, 18-17, on a 3-pointer by Breyton Buysman (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.). SMU would lead again, 20-19, on a Jabari Sawyer (Chicago, Ill.) jumper, but the Cobbers closed the half on a 13-6 run to claim a 32-26 advantage at the break.
 
Both teams came out firing on all cylinders to kick off the second half, combining for five 3-pointers in the opening four minutes — with Sawyer knocking down two of SMU's treys, while Owen Ziegler (Mount Horeb, Wis.) added another — leaving the Cobbers clinging to a three-point, 40-37 lead.
 
Over the next five minutes, Concordia wrestled away the momentum, rattling off 12 unanswered points to turn that three-point nailbiter into a 15-point, 52-37 Cobber cushion.
 
Unfazed, the Cardinals went to work, seeing the Cobbers' 12-0 run ad raising it by four — delivering 16 unanswered points to regain the lead 53-52 with 7:19 remaining in regulation.
 
Unfortunately, the game would have one final game-ending run — and this one belonged to the Cobbers, as Concordia held Saint Mary's to one field goal and three free throws over the final seven-plus minutes in pulling away for the 72-58 victory.
 
Sawyer finished with a team-high 20 points for the Cardinals, who also got nine points from Buysman, Mallory, and Khai Branham (Bemidji, Minn.). As a team, Saint Mary's shot 40.0 percent from the field (22-for-55), including a 10 of 23 effot from behind the 3-point line, while going 4-for-7 from the free throw line.
 
Saint Mary's (4-11 MIAC, 5-15 overall) are back in action, and back on the road, as theCardinals head to Macalester's Leonard Center Gym in St. Paul, Minn., for a 3 p.m. conference matchup against the Scots.
 
 
 
 
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