Defensive gem secures Tommies 70-45 win over Fighting Hawks

GRAND FORKS, N.D. – A strong defensive performance led St. Thomas men's basketball to a dominating 70-45 win at North Dakota in Grand Forks, N.D., to start Summit League play.

Graduate student Parker Bjorklund led the Tommies with 21 points on 9-of-16 shooting, making 2-of-4 from behind the arc. He was second on the team in rebounds with eight, following fellow graduate student Raheem Anthony with nine. Two other Tommies finished with double-digit points as sophomore Ahjany Lee scored seven of the Tommies first 15 and sophomore Kendall Blue led the team in scoring in the second half.

St. Thomas scored 42 of its 70 points in the paint and achieved a strong performance from the bench with 26 points. The Tommies shot 53.7 percent from the field making it their fourth-best shooting performance of the year and their fourth consecutive game shooting over 50 percent. The Purple limited North Dakota to just 14 points in the first half, tied for a season low over the opening 20 minutes, as the Fighting Hawks shot 30.6 percent (15-49) from the floor through the game.

Recap
The Tommies came out with pace to start the first half of Summit League play. Bjorklund kicked off the scoring with an open 3-pointer from the top of the key. Three's from both junior Ben Nau and sophomore Ahjany Lee would push the Tommies to a 15-1 lead. The great shooting from behind the arc continued early as St. Thomas made five of the first six from three with redshirt freshman Carter Bjerke making back-to-back shots and pushing the Tommies lead to 24-1.

St. Thomas' defense held North Dakota without a field goal for the first 9:30 of play. After making their first basket, the Fighting Hawks went on a 13-7 run that was offset by another strong defensive effort from the Tommies. Anthony's first basket of the game was the start of a 13-0 run by St. Thomas to end the first half. The Purple would lead 41-14 at the halftime break, outscoring North Dakota 18 to 4 in the paint and outrebounding them 23 to 10.

The pace continued for St. Thomas to begin the second half scoring their first two baskets off fast breaks, including a slam by Blue. He would continue successfully driving to the paint scoring four of the Tommies' first eight baskets of the half, leading scoring in the second half with eight points. The defense for St. Thomas continued to play well holding North Dakota to 26 percent from 3-point range in the second half.

The Tommies have now held a Summit League opponent to 45 points or fewer once over the past two seasons, previously holding Kansas City to 43 points Feb. 11, 2022 in St. Paul. It's also the fourth time St. Thomas has held its opponent to fewer than 50 points over the past three seasons.

St. Thomas improves to 3-0 all-time in Summit League openers, including a win over North Dakota last season, and has won nine straight conference openers, dating back to Dec. 2, 2015. Head Coach Johnny Tauer is 12-1 all-time in conference openers.

Top Tommies

Graduate student Parker Bjorklund led the team with 21 points on 9-of-16 shooting overall and 2-of-4 from the 3-point line. He recorded an additional eight rebounds on the night.
Redshirt freshman Carter Bjerke continued to shoot well behind the arc leading the team in threes, shooting 75 percent (3-of-4).
Sophomore Kendall Blue led the team in the second half with eight points and totaling 10 on the night. He dealt his team the ball well, leading the team in assists with five while he added five rebounds, the third time in his career with a 10-5-5 line.
Graduate student Raheem Anthony led the team in rebounding with nine boards and was close to a double-double performance on the night finishing with nine points.

Quotables
Head Coach Johnny Tauer on the Tommies' defense and rebounding during Friday's win:
"I'm really proud of a couple things. One, North Dakota is a really, really proficient offensive team. They're well coached, they've got a bunch of scorers out there and they space the floor well. They're one of the harder teams in the conference to guard and I thought our guys just did a tremendous job…being connected on defense.

"North Dakota is one of the better offensive rebounding teams in the country and for us to have a 40-21 edge, in particularly get 32 of their 36 misses, 89 percent defensive rebounds is one of the highest we've ever had… Really proud of how we played defensively, but also rebounding, which I think led into our transition game. We were able to get out and run."

Up Next
The Tommies next match will be their Summit League home opener at Schoenecker Arena, facing off against the Kansas City Roos. The game will tip off at 2 p.m. CT on Sunday, Dec. 31 in St. Paul.

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Team Stats

Parker Bjorklund

Carter Bjerke

Kendall Blue

Ahjany Lee

Players Mentioned

Raheem Anthony

Carter Bjerke

Parker Bjorklund

Kendall Blue

Ahjany Lee

Ben Nau