Bjorklund’s career night lifts Tommies past Fighting Hawks in Summit League Opener

St. Paul, Minn. – Despite a 24-6 rebounding deficit heading into halftime, St. Thomas held even with North Dakota, 30-30, before grad student Parker Bjorklund erupted for 22 second-half points to lift St. Thomas to a 75-62 win to open Summit League action.

With the win, St. Thomas improves to 10-4 on the season and 1-0 in conference action. The 10 wins matches last season total only 14 games into the 2022-23 campaign.

"Thrilled to get a victory tonight in our Summit League opener against a really tough North Dakota team," stated Head Coach Dr. Johnny Tauer. "I thought our guys played with a lot of poise – five turnovers, over 50 percent from the field. I thought our glue guys were awesome and efforts off the bench sparked us. I'm very proud of our team in a gritty victory against a tough team. I appreciate all of the crowd support, Schoenecker Arena was electric,"

The Tommies opened the game with three-straight made baskets jumping out to an early 7-0 lead less than two minutes into the game. The Fighting Hawks answered with a 15-9 run of their own to bring it to a one-point contest on two separate occasions, 16-15, and 18-17 with 7:41 to play in the opening half.

North Dakota would take its first lead of the ball game, 19-18 with 7:34 to play in the opening half. The two teams battled their way to a 30-30 tie at halftime as senior Riley Miller hit a three-point play as time expired in the first half.

Miller led the way with 16 points on a 5-of-7 showing from the field, all of which were from behind the arc. As a team, the Tommies connected on 11-of-25 (44%) from the field, including 7-of-14 (50%) of their shots from behind the arc in the first half.

UND opened a 37-34 lead, its largest lead of the night, with 16:36 to play. St. Thomas went on a 17-6 run over the next 5:15 to open a 10-point, 51-41 lead with 11:33 to play in the contest.

The Fighting Hawks were able to battle back within five, 64-59 with just under four minutes to play before the Purple ended the game on an 11-5 run to earn their 10^th win of the season and improve to 1-0 in Summit League action.

The Duo of Bjorklund and Miller led St. Thomas with 29 and 24 points, respectively. Miller went 5-of-8 from behind the arc in the contest and went a perfect 7-for-7 from the charity stripe. Bjorkund made 13-of-20 of his field goal attempts for a career-best 29-point effort. Junior Courtney Brown Jr. contributed 23 minutes which included some momentum changing defensive and rebounding efforts.

As a unit, St. Thomas connected on 53 percent (28-of-53) of its shots from the field and 43 percent (9-of-21) from downtown in the winning efforts. An efficient offensive effort highlighted by five turnovers from the Tommies made up for the rebound deficit.

St. Thomas completes the 2022 portion of its schedule on Wednesday as it hosts North Dakota State with tipoff slated for 7:00 p.m.

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Team Stats

Parker Bjorklund

Riley Miller

Kendall Blue

Brooks Allen

Players Mentioned

Parker Bjorklund

Riley Miller