By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota men's basketball team gave St. Thomas all it could handle Wednesday evening—and then some.
 
The Cardinals—who surrendered 100 points to the high-powered Tommies in the teams' first meeting just 16 days ago—made life miserable for St. Thomas all evening in the rematch.
 
In fact, through the game's opening 20 minutes, it was Saint Mary's that controlled play, grabbing a five-point, 41-36 halftime advantage.
 
Over the final 20 minutes, however, St. Thomas found its rhythm, outscoring Saint Mary's 34-20 in recording the hard-earned 70-61 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference win at Schoenecker Arena.
 
Saint Mary's trailed by as many as eight, 21-13, early in the first half, but no matter how hard they tried, the Tommies could not shake the Cardinals, who used a 13-3 half-ending run to turn that eight-point deficit into a five-point lead, 41-36, heading into the locker room at the break.
 
St. Thomas came out swinging to open the second half, scoring 15 of the first 18 points to regain the lead for good, 51-44. Saint Mary's trimmed the UST lead to four, 53-49 on a pair of Sawyer Rosner (Phelps, Wis.) free throws midway through the half, but that was as close as the Cardinal would get, as the Tommies outscored SMU 17-12 the rest of the way to ice the win.
 
Kareem Anthony-Bello (Chicago, Ill.) scored a game-high 20 points and added eight rebounds for the Cardinals—who finished 25-for-34 from the free throw line—while Jakob Bailey (Cameron, Wis.) chipped in 13 points and Rosner finished with 11.
 
Erik Davis tallied 14 points and Connor Bair added 11 for St. Thomas, which got scoring from 10 different players.
 
The Cardinals close out their regular-season schedule—and bid farewell to their two graduating seniors, James Cullen (Western Springs, Ill.) and Brandon Retzlaff (Elroy, Wis.)—on Saturday, entertaining Hamline in a 1 p.m. MIAC contest at the Saint Mary's Gym.