Hallelujah, it was settled in regulation time Saturday afternoon as Incarnate Word won at St. Mary's and solidified its hold on first place in the Heartland Conference.

The 69-59 win at St. Mary's put the Cardinals at 14-4 for the season but more importantly upped them to 6-1 in Heartland play and they now rest in first place alone. The win was the sixth in a row for UIW, a season best string, with the last two coming over second place St. Edward's (5-2) and of course this one over bitter rival St. Mary's (8-9; 3-3).

And this latest win wasn't in overtime. Incarnate Word now has won the last three games played at St. Mary's. The other two had to have extra periods to settle the matters including that three-overtime thriller in mid-January two years ago. Overall, the Cardinals now have won five of the last seven against the Rattlers.

Thursday's battle was just more of the same for these two squads, action that the Cardinals faithful have come to expect. It was push and shove, grab and hold all game long with both teams faring poorly from the field--UIW was but .314 as a team while St. Mary's was slightly better at .358. Whereas the Cardinals won at St. Edward's just 48 hours earlier by going a school record 15-22 on three's they changed methods in Thursday's win.

They went to shorter shots--free throws. All-in-all UIW was 33-42 at the strip to 18-22 for the Rattlers.

Junior guard Pierce Caldwell showed off his smooth stroke by canning back-to-back three's giving UIW a 39-32 lead with 15:28 remaining in the game. Over the final 15:28 Incarnate Word made but two field goals.

The Cardinals were 10-11 at the line before senior forward Chris Patterson made a short jumper. Then, over a period of 4:30 UIW had nothing but freebies going 10-12 before senior guard Eric Nuncio stole an inbounds pass and made a runner for the final margin.

Amongst all the battling on every possession, senior forward Garrett Bell was significant. He was 0-11 from the field. But he did lead the Cardinals with seven rebounds to go with a pair of blocked shots. More importantly he was assigned to Nick Morey, St. Mary's leading scorer for the year with his 17-plus average. Morey finished with 10 points, four of which came in the final minute of play. He got off but nine attempts from the field mainly because Bell seemed to be in his path the entire game.

Senior center Jawan Bailey led UIW with 21 points followed closely by Caldwell with 20. The other Cardinal in double figures was Patterson with 15 including being 11-12 at the line. He was 7-8 on free throws in the final two minutes of play.

Next up for Incarnate Word are two more road games in Heartland action. January 29 they play at Lincoln followed closely by a January 31 game at Newman of Kansas.