Men’s Basketball downs North Central 97-45 to complete non-conference slate

St. Paul, Minn. – The St. Thomas men's basketball team assisted on 29-of-36 made shots and committed only two turnovers to cruise to a 97-45 win over North Central to improve to 7-7 on the season.

The short-handed Tommies, who only had seven players available due to non-COVID related issues, started the first half slowly, leading by five points, 16-11, with just under 10 minutes played before they went on a 28-11 run to close out the first half to take a 44-22 lead into intermission

As a team, the Purple connected on 17-of-40 (43 percent) of their first-half shots, but 13 of the 17 made field goals came off an assist. Defensively, St. Thomas forced eight North Central turnovers in the first 20 minutes of play and recorded six steals. Additionally, the Tommies limited the Rams to just five first-half field goals.

Individually, the trio of senior G Kevin Cunningham, grad student G Burt Hedstrom, and grad student G Ryan Lindberg all contributed 11 first-half points. Senior G Anders Nelson assisted on five of the 17 made shots in the first half.

The Purple improved their shooting in the second half, connecting on 46 percent of their shots from the field and 44 percent from behind the arc and posted 53 second-half points.

St. Thomas finished the contest connecting on 36-of-81 (44 percent) of their shots from the field and matched a program-best 22 made three pointers on 54 attempts. The 29 assists are a season-best total, surpassing the previous best of 17 assists.

Individually, five Tommies in Cunningham, Hedstrom, Lindberg, Nelson and junior F Brooks Allen all played 30 minutes in the game. Six of the seven Tommies to see the court tonight contributed double-digit points led by Hedstrom with 18 points, who also grabbed 10 rebounds, dished out two assists and recorded one steal. Nelson contributed 10 points and eight assists. The trio of Lindberg, Cunningham and Allen all dropped in 12 points. Freshman G Ben Nau contributed 12 points off the bench for the Purple.

In his return, senior F Parker Bjorklund started the game, played 20 minutes and contributed nine points, 12 rebounds, six assists, two blocks and two steals.

"We were thrilled with the way we shared the ball and took care of the ball tonight," said Head Coach Dr. Johnny Tauer. "Our guys played responsibly on both ends of the floor and without our regular depth, I thought we had several guys step up and make contributions that were critical. It was great to have Parker back, he does so many unique things for the team and provides a presence in the paint that allows us to do a number of things on offense."

The Tommies return to Summit League action on Saturday as they host Western Illinois, tip-off is slated for 2:00 p.m.

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Team Stats

Burt Hedstrom

Kevin Cunningham

Ryan Lindberg

Brooks Allen

Players Mentioned

Brooks Allen

Parker Bjorklund

Kevin Cunningham

Burt Hedstrom

Ryan Lindberg

Ben Nau

Anders Nelson