University of St. Thomas Athletics
24-3
St. Olaf
18-9
Second-half slump costs Men's Hoops
2/28/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By DOUG HENNES
Two years ago, unranked and visiting St. Olaf came into the MIAC playoff title game against regular-season champion St. Thomas and pulled off a 63-53 upset by holding the No. 12 Tommies to 36 percent shooting and making 15 more free throws.
On Sunday, the unranked and visiting Oles won another MIAC playoff championship in remarkably similar fashion. They outshot No. 7 St. Thomas 54 percent to 43 percent and, after grabbing a second-half lead, iced the game by making a dozen free throws to win 72-66.
The victory gave St. Olaf (18-9) the conference's automatic berth into the NCAA Division III tournament, which begins on Friday. The Tommies (24-3) expect to receive an at-large bid for their 11th consecutive Division III tournament appearance and will find out Monday if they will host the opening-weekend games in Schoenecker Arena.
"We're disappointed today but we're still excited at the opportunity to play in the national tournament," coach John Tauer said. "Our guys have been remarkably consistent all year, and not that many teams are 24-3. At this time of year, you have to play your best against good teams like St. Olaf, and today we did not."
"Give credit to St. Olaf," said junior guard Grant Schaeffer, who led St. Thomas with 20 points and played 38 minutes. "They played us tough today."
Strong early start
St. Olaf led 9-5 when St. Thomas went on a 14-2 run capped by a Jimmy Remke 3-pointer to jump ahead 19-11. Remke followed with a second trey a minute later for the Tommies' largest lead at 22-13, and they went into halftime leading 40-36.
The teams played even ball for the first five minutes of the second half before St. Thomas, up 46-41, hit a dry spell. The Tommies went 0 for 11 from the field over the next seven minutes and the Oles went on a 14-1 run to seize a 55-47 lead that they never gave up. After making four of seven 3-pointers in the first half, St. Thomas was 1 for 12 in the second half.
"We got stagnant," Schaeffer said. "The shots just weren't falling. That's when you have to dig down deep and get stops on defense, but they were able to hold us off."
Tauer felt his team allowed St. Olaf guards to penetrate too often and dish off for easy baskets by center Ben Figini, who hit 10 of 13 shots to finish with 20 points, including 14 in the first half. "We simply had too many breakdowns on defense," Tauer said.
St. Thomas trailed 59-54 when St. Olaf salted away the game at the free throw line. All 16 Ole free throws came in the second half, with 11 dropping in the last five minutes.
Tommie Notes
Taylor Montero and Cortez Tillman also finished in double figures for the Tommies, with 15 and 11 points. Center Ryan Saarela pulled down nine rebounds and blocked four shots but scored only seven points on 3 of 11 shooting.
St. Thomas has won 14 MIAC playoff titles in the 32-year history of the event and has a 36-16 record in 29 appearances. Tauer is 8-2 in the playoffs, with both losses to St. Olaf, in his five years as coach. He has won all 10 regular-season games against the Oles, including 75-66 and 78-72 this year.
Sophomore guard Michael Hannon won the MIAC's Elite 22 Award for the highest GPA of any player in the title game.
