Men’s Basketball can’t shoot their way past Oral Roberts’ stymie defensive effort

St. Paul, Minn. – Men's Basketball Team (8-8, 2-2) connected on 40 percent of their shots from the field and only 21 percent from behind the arc as they fell to last year's NCAA Tournament Cinderella Story, Oral Roberts (10-6, 4-1).

"We're really proud of the guys and the way they competed for 40 minutes against an outstanding program," said Head Coach Dr. Johnny Tauer. "Coach (Paul) Mills does an outstanding job and Oral Roberts is one of the teams around the country and certainly in our league that has set a really high bar in college basketball. I thought our guys took good care of the ball and were tough minded on defense. While we didn't shoot as well as we would've like to, a lot of that credit goes to Oral Roberts and the way they defended us."

The Golden Eagles raced out to a 21-10 lead through the first eight minutes of play against the Tommies, aided by 10 points from the reigning Summit League Player of the Week Max Anmas.

St. Thomas trailed Oral Roberts by as many as 17 points in the opening half before battling back to an 11-point, 43-32, deficit at intermission.

The Tommies struggled shooting the ball from deep, partly due to a long, lengthy defensive effort from the Golden Eagles. St. Thomas connected on 13-of-38 (34 percent) of its shots from the field and only 3-of-19 (16 percent) from behind the arc. The Tommies forced seven first-half turnovers from the Golden Eagles and turned the ball over only once in the first 20 minutes.

Individually, senior F Parker Bjorklund led the charge for the Purple, scoring 17 first-half points, just one point short of his previous career best.

St. Thomas briefly brought cut the lead to eight points, 50-42 with 14 minutes to play before Oral Roberts went on an 11-2 run over the next four minutes of play to open up a deficit St. Thomas couldn't overcome.

As a team, St. Thomas connected 27-of-68 (40 percent) of its shots from the floor and only 7-of-34 attempts (21 percent) from behind the arc. The Purple was out-rebounded 48-29, but the Tommies only committed six turnovers to the Golden Eagles' 11.

Individually, there were three Tommies to reach double-digit points led by Bjorklund who netted a career-best 21 points. Joining him in double figures was the senior G duo of Anders Nelson (17) and Riley Miller (11) Nelson grabbed a team-best six rebounds and dished out two assists.

"I really appreciate the turnout, I thought it was a great environment here at Schoenecker Arena here tonight and we're grateful for all of the fan support," Tauer added.

St. Thomas returns to action next Thursday, Jan. 13 as they travel to Fargo, N.D., to face NDSU. Tipoff is slated for 7:00 p.m.

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Team Stats

Parker Bjorklund

Anders Nelson

Riley Miller

Burt Hedstrom

Players Mentioned

Parker Bjorklund

Riley Miller

Anders Nelson