By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
MOORHEAD, Minn. ­— Sawyer Rosner (Phelps, Wis.) turned in a career performance in the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota men's basketball team's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference showdown against Concordia.
 
And for the second time in as many meetings, the Cardinals stood toe-to-toe with the Cobbers right to the final bell.
 
Unfortunately, as was the case in their first meeting, it was the Cobbers who escaped with the victory, surviving the Cardinals' late second-half rally—not to mention Rosner's career-high 23 points—to deal Saint Mary's an 86-77 setback at Memorial Auditorium.
 
Neither team could take control early, with the game tied five times—including 2-2, 4-4, 6-6, 8-8, and 10-10. Concordia used a 6-0 run to grab a 16-10 lead, but Saint Mary's answered, scoring 16 of the next 25 points to regain the lead, 26-25, with 8:03 remaining.
 
That one-point advantage, however, would be the last time the Cardinals would lead in the game's opening 20 minutes, as Concordia ended the half on 20-8 run—including 3-pointers by Larson and Jordan Davis sandwiched around an Evan Huntley (Elk River, Minn.) field goal to give the Cobbers its biggest lead of the half, 45-34.
 
Rosner, who scored 16 points in the game's opening 20 minutes, kicked off the second half with his sixth field goal of the evening to make it a nine-point game, 45-36.
 
Concordia appeared to take control following Rosner's field goal, using a 13-5 burst to push its lead to a game-high 17, 58-41. The Cobbers equaled that 17-point lead, 60-43 on a basket by Jordan Davis with 12:13 remaining in regulation.
 
But the Cardinals were just heating up.
 
Saint Mary's whittled away at the Cobber advantage, trimming the lead to seven, 79-72 on a pair of free throws by Jakob Bailey (Cameron, Wis.) with 2:57 to play. From there, the Cardinals' hot hand turned ice cold, as Saint Mary's converted just two of its final six field goal attempts—including a 3-pointer by Kareem Anthony-Bello (Chicago, Ill.) in the waning seconds—in falling to the Cobbers for the second time in as many meetings.
 
Rosner, whose previous single-game career high was a 20-point effort against Carleton on Jan. 17, finished 7-for-12 from the field, including a pair of 3-pointers, and was a perfect 7-for-7 from the free throw line en route to his career-best 23 points. Anthony Bello chipped in 14 points and Bailey added 10 for the Cardinals, who shot 43.5 percent from the field (27-for-62 with five 3-pointers, while finishing 18-for-22 from the charity stripe.
 
The Cardinals (0-17 MIAC, 1-21 overall) are back in Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play on Saturday, as Saint Mary's travels to Macalester's Leonard Center in St. Paul, Minn., for a 1 p.m. showdown with the Scots.