University of St. Thomas Athletics
Augsburg
Men's Hoops secures MIAC title share
2/13/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
MIAC Men's Basketball
St. Thomas 72, Augsburg 60
Sophomore center Sam Eicher scored a career-high 14 points off the bench and the host Tommies secured a share of the MIAC men's basketball title with Wednesday night's 72-60 win over Augsburg at Schoenecker Arena.
No. 17-ranked St. Thomas (20-3 overall, 16-2 MIAC) ran its season win streak to 10 and its conference home win streak to 32. The Tommies reached the 20-win mark for the sixth time in nine seasons as they posted a 30-8 advantage in bench scoring and had only nine turnovers.
It's the 13th MIAC title for Coach Steve Fritz, third in a row and 12th in the last 20 seasons. The last time a conference men's basketball team won three consecutive MIAC championships was in 1988-92 when the Toms won four straight.
St. Thomas can win the outright title and secure the top seed for the playoffs with one more win or one Gustavus loss.
Augsburg led 41-37 with 16:00 to go, but Lonnie Robinson scored eight to fuel an 18-6 run that put the Toms ahead 55-47 with 5:07 to play. The Toms made 12-of-15 free throws in the final 4:11 to pull away.
The Auggies (10-12, 8-9), who had a five-game winning streak halted, were plagued by foul trouble. Senior center Femi Solaja had 16 points and nine rebounds (7-of-8 shooting) but played only 28 minutes before fouling out. Junior forward Nate Alm (7-of-8 shooting) had 14 of his 15 points in the first half but fouled out after playing just 25 minutes.
David Olson added 11 points and six assists for the Auggies, who shot 64% in the first half but 27% in the second half. Mitch Dice added nine rebounds for the Auggies, who were outscored at the foul line 20-8.
For the Tommies, B.J. Viau had 11 points and eight rebounds; Joe Scott and Tyler Nicolai each scored 10 points; Robinson had nine points and Al McCoy had eight points. Eicher's previous career scoring high in 18 games at UST was six points.
St. Thomas has a bye Saturday and finishes on the road Feb. 20 at Concordia-Moorhead and Feb. 23 at St. John's.
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