University of St. Thomas Athletics
26-3
Elmhurst
22-7
Sweet Saturday: Men's Hoops joins victory parade
3/5/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By DOUG HENNES
Coach John Tauer is a big believer in balanced scoring. If one of his players has an off night, somebody picks up the slack, and the favor is returned the next game. The result has been a St. Thomas men's basketball team with four starters averaging between 12.8 and 14.4 points a game.
That balance proved pivotal again Saturday night when No. 8 St. Thomas squared off against No. 18 Elmhurst in Schoenecker Arena for the right to advance to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Division III tournament. Six Tommies scored in double figures for the first time this season en route to a 94-81 win over the Bluejays.
As a result, St. Thomas (26-3) kept its season alive and will play a third-round game Friday against No. 11 Whitman, an 88-86 upset winner over No. 3 Whitworth. The NCAA will announce the game's location on Sunday, but top-ranked Augustana is expected to host the Sweet Sixteen regional in Rock Island Ill., and will face Emory in the other third-round game.
"We pride ourselves on balanced scoring," Tauer said. "To have Jimmy Remke (12 points) come off the bench is always a threat. And then Ryan Boll (10 points, eight in second half) had a great night and complemented the other guys."
Senior center Ryan Saarela led the Tommies in scoring for the second straight night, notching 19 points on 6 of 10 shooting from the field and seven free throws, and had a game-high 14 rebounds. Saarela scored a career-high 25 points in the tournament opener against Central of Iowa.
Add 18 and 15 points from guards Grant Schaeffer and Cortez Tillman and 14 from forward Taylor Montero, and the six double-figure scorers accounted for 88 of St. Thomas' season-high 94 points.
Physical first half
Tauer expected a physical game from Elmhurst, which started the season 16-1, was ranked as high as No. 2 and finished third in the rugged College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin.
The game was close for the first six minutes but Elmhurst got into early foul trouble, putting St. Thomas at the line for bonus-situation free throws at the 13:39 mark and in the double-bonus two minutes later. The Tommies went up by 10 on the strength of eight free throws during a 2:20 span, and a Remke 3-pointer gave them their largest lead of the half at 30-17.
That's when Elmhurst sharpshooter Kyle Wuest, who came into the game averaging 15 points, got hot. He scored 16 of the Bluejays' next 22 points to tie the game before a Shaeffer layup and 3-pointer and a Remke free throw gave the Tommies a 45-39 halftime lead.
Wuest continued the barrage after intermission, scoring 13 points in the first nine minutes to give Elmhurst a 62-60 lead. Tauer could do little but shake his head in admiration.
"That is as good of an individual performance as we have seen this year," he said. "I thought (Wuest) put them on his back in the first half and at the start of the second half. It wasn't like we were giving the guy open shots."
Wuest, however, turned his ankle and sat down midway through the half. He returned with five minutes to go but didn't score again, finishing with 33 points on 10 of 18 shooting and a perfect 8 for 8 from the free throw line.
Elmhurst coach John Baines called Wuest "an incredible streak player" and said he has been nursing the ankle since he turned it in the CCIW playoffs. "He wanted to go back in tonight," Baines said. "I think it may have slowed him down, but it wasn't the difference in the game."
Elmhurst cooled off with Wuest out of the game. The Bluejays made eight of their first 11 shots in the second half but finished 6 of 18, and the Tommies regained the lead for good at 69-68 on two Montero free throws. They closed the game on a 27-13 run.
A turning point was a five-point sequence in which Montero made a layup, was fouled, made the free throw and then made two more free throws when a Bluejay was whistled for a technical foul. The spurt increased the St. Thomas lead to 89-76 with 1:47 to go.
Elmhurst ended up with 30 fouls to 17 for the Tommies, who made 28 free throws to the Bluejays' 16. The nature of the game didn't surprise Tauer or Saarela.
"It was a slugfest, which we expected," Tauer said.
"Their big guys are very physical," Saarela said. "They played me pretty straight up in the post, and I knew I had to take advantage of that. "Cortez and Schaeff did a good job of getting me the ball."
Schaeffer logged 39 minutes on Saturday after 36 minutes against Central, but he insisted he wasn't tired.
"I told JT, 'I'm young,' " and Tauer laughed. "He was upset with me when I took him out," Tauer said. 'He told me, 'Coach, I can do 40.' "
Tommie Notes
St. Thomas held a slight rebounding edge at 37-33, with eight offensive boards leading to 19 second-chance points against Elmhurt's 19 points. The Tommies commited only seven turnovers to Elmhurst's 12 and dominated the lane with a 34-18 scoring edge.
The win boosted St. Thomas' NCAA men's basketball playoff record on campus to 17-5, including eight victories in a row.
Whitman has scored 100 or more points eight times this season and averages 91 points a game. In the win over Whitworth, the Missionaries tied the game with a 3-pointer and won on a layup with 2.6 seconds to go.
The Tommies are familiar with Whitman, in Walla Walla, Wash., having defeated the Missionaries 96-86 in November 2014. UST trailed Whitman by 14 points in the second half of that game but rallied for the win. Montero (20 points), Tillman (18) and Schaeffer (16) had big games.
The Tommies also defeated Whitman 104-81 in 2012.
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