University of St. Thomas Athletics
22-2, 18-1MIAC
St. Olaf
11-13, 8-11MIAC
Men's hoops grinds out road win at St. Olaf
2/19/2020 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
NORTHFIELD, Minn. - Four nights after collecting a top-five win over Saint John's on the road, third-ranked St. Thomas men's basketball went back to work and earned another tough road victory. The Tommies went in to Skoglund Center on Wednesday night and came away with a 76-69 win over St. Olaf to improve to 22-2 overall and 18-1 in the MIAC.
St. Olaf stormed out to an early lead, scoring the first five points of the contest and building an early six-point lead (10-4) after the first four minutes of play. A Zach Theisen three pointer finally cut the lead back to a single possession (13-11) with 13:57 to play in the first half.
Elijah Hannah later tied the score at 15-15 with 12:44 remaining in the opening half, but the Tommies would not lead for another three minutes until Anders Nelson cashed in on a pair of free throws.
The Purple went on to lead by as many as five points in the first half before taking a 37-34 advantage to the locker room at halftime.
The Tommies opened the second half with a scoring possession to take a five-point lead, but the Oles had the answer and the two teams settled in to a one possession contest for a majority of the second half. For every score, an answer. For every defensive stop, another defensive stop on the other end.
St. Olaf regained the lead midway through the second half when a Charlie Haff three went down to put the Oles in front 51-50 with 12:25 to go.
The big shot of the night came with 3:17 to go. Trailing 67-65, Ryan Lindberg nailed a triple to give the Tommies a 68-67 advantage. From there, St. Thomas buckled down and got the stops it needed down the stretch. Pair that with a streak of five straight made free throws, and the Tommies came away with the 76-69 win.
Lindberg led the Tommies with 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the floor, including three treys. Anders Nelson and Elijah Hannah followed with 13 points each. Zach Theisen was the final Tommie in double figures with 12 points with three triples and a 3-for-3 mark from the charity stripe.
St. Olaf's Troy Diggins Jr., led all scorers with 19 points on 7-of-13 shooting.
St. Thomas shot 46.8-percent (22-47) from the field and 37.5-percent (9-24) from three, while St. Olaf shot 41.5-percent (22-53) from the floor and 30-percent (6-20) from behind the arc. The key stat came in bench points, where the Tommies outscored the Oles 28-11 on the night.
St. Thomas will be back in action on Saturday afternoon when it hosts Saint Mary's for Senior Day. That game is set for a 1:00pm tip.
