By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
WINONA, Minn. — For the second straight game, Jakob Bailey (Cameron, Wis.) was in career-best form Monday evening in the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota men's basketball team's game against Concordia.
 
And, as good as the Cardinal freshman was against Saint John's last Saturday—pouring in a team- and career-best 12 points—Bailey was even better against the Cobbers.
 
Much, much better.
 
Unfortunately, not even Bailey's best outing as a Cardinal—18 points on 8 of 13 shooting—was quite enough.
 
Concordia held off a furious Cardinal push in the game's final minutes to deal Saint Mary's a heartbreaking, 67-64 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference setback at the Saint Mary's Gym.
 
The Cardinals struggled to find their shooting touch early in the first half, making just 4 of their first 17 field goal attempts in the game's opening 10 minutes, allowing Concordia to build its biggest lead of the half, 20-10.
 
Once the Cardinals worked off the chill, however, that touch warmed up immensely, as Saint Mary's scored 10 unanswered points to knot the game at 20-20 with 6:20 on the clock.
 
Concordia pushed its lead back to seven twice over the remaining six minutes—including 36-29 with 1:01 remaining—only to have Saint Mary's score five of the half's final six points, including a James Cullen (Western Springs, Ill.) 3-pointer with four seconds remaining, to cut the Cobber lead to three, 37-34 at the break.
 
Concordia would not relinquish the lead over the game's final 20 minutes, but there certainly were plenty of nail-biting moments.
 
The Cobbers came out firing to open the second half, pushing that three-point lead to a game-high 11, 55-44 with just under 11 minutes remaining in regulation.
 
Still trailing by eight, 63-55, seven minutes later, the Cardinals went to work, whittling the lead down to one twice—the last on an emphatic Bailey dunk that made it 65-64 with 1:01 left on the clock.
 
Concordia pushed its lead to 67-64 with single free throws from Thomas Schyma and Collin Larson, and the Cardinals' game-tying 3-point try failed to connect at the buzzer, hitting iron before falling away.
 
Bailey was one of three Cardinals to score in double figures, with James Cullen (Western Springs, Ill.) and Kareem Anthony-Bello (Chicago, Ill.) each chipping in 11 points. As a team, Saint Mary's shot 44 percent from the field (23-for-52)—including 10 3-pointers—while adding an 8 of 13 effort from the free throw line.
 
The Cobbers—who got 16 points from Larson and 10 from Austin Heins—hit on 23 of 56 field goal attempts (41 percent) with seven 3-pointers, and were 14-for-20 from the charity stripe.
 
The Cardinals (0-7 MIAC, 1-11 overall) are back in action on Wednesday, entertaining Gustavus in a 7 p.m. MIAC matchup at the Saint Mary's Gym.