Freshmen duo shine as Tommie Men’s Basketball takes 84-48 win over Terriers

St. Paul, Minn. -- The freshmen duo of Kendall Blue and Andrew Rohde combined for 35 points and 11 assists to lead St. Thomas Men's Basketball to an 84-48 win over St. Francis Brooklyn Sunday at Schoenecker Arena. Rohde led all scorers with 20 points as the Tommies improve to 2-1 on the season and 2-0 at home.

"I'm really excited to get a good victory against St. Francis," Head Coach John Tauer said. "They're a tough, physical team. Their defense, we knew that they were going to pressure us, and our guys responded really well. Six turnovers against their pressure embodied our toughness and 18 assists to go with that shows a lot of unselfishness."

"The other key for us was our defense holding them to 48 points. All along our guys were willing to help one another and rotate and fly around and just be unselfish on both ends of the ball. It's really exciting to be three games into the year and to see these guys grow and improve so much and just love playing with one another."

The Terriers opened the game with a first-possession 3-pointer that was followed by three Tommie baskets from Rohde, senior Will Engels and Blue to take a 6-3 lead. SFB snagged the lead once more in the game before a 9-0 run put the Tommies ahead, 15-7.

Graduate student Riley Miller's first of three 3-pointers in the game gave St. Thomas its first double-digit lead, which was extended to 23 points by halftime. The Tommies shot 63 percent from the field in the first half with 30 points in the paint.

The Tommies' lead dipped below 20 points just once through the remainder of the game and held a game-high 37-point lead, 84-47 with just over one minute to play.

St. Thomas totaled 18 assists to just six turnovers and scored 19 points off 12 St. Francis Brooklyn turnovers.

Rohde's game-high 20 points came off 9-of-15 shooting as he added six assists, four rebounds, two steals and just one turnover. Blue finished the game 7-of-9 shooting and 1-of-2 from beyond the arc, and chipped in five assists, three rebounds, one steal and one block.

Miller totaled 13 points on 4-of-8 shooting while senior Brooks Allen scored 11 points on 4-of-8 shooting with five rebounds and three steals. Engels led the Tommies in rebounds for the third straight game with seven to go along with nine points.

St. Thomas begins a five-game road trip Nov. 17-19 as it takes part in the Zootown Classic hosted by the University of Montana. The Tommies will play the Grizzlies Nov. 17 at 8:30 p.m. to open the series before taking on Troy at 6 p.m. Nov. 18 and Merrimack at 6 p.m. Nov. 19 in Missoula, Mont.

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Team Stats

Andrew Rohde

Kendall Blue

Riley Miller

Brooks Allen

Players Mentioned

Brooks Allen

Will Engels

Riley Miller