3-point attack helps St. Thomas hold off Idaho for fifth straight win

MOSCOW, Idaho -- An early onslaught of 3-pointers set the tone for the fifth straight win by St. Thomas men's basketball, defeating Idaho 75-67 Wednesday night to begin the Big Sky-Summit Challenge.

The Tommies went 6-of-13 from 3-point range over the first 13 minutes and shot 15-of-38 through the game, setting season highs in makes and attempts. St. Thomas shot 40.7 percent from the field, snapping a five-game streak shooting above 50 percent, and limited Idaho to 41.4 percent overall and 40.0 percent from 3-point range (8-20).

Senior Drake Dobbs led the Tommies with 16 points on 3-of-6 shooting, including 2-of-5 from 3-point range, and 8-of-8 from the free throw line. He added six assists and one turnover to go along with three rebounds, one steal and one block. Sophomore Kendall Blue followed close with 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting, including 4-of-9 on 3-pointers. He grabbed five rebounds and added five assists, his second game with at least 10 points, five rebounds and five assists over the past three games.

RECAP
St. Thomas made it an effort to shoot behind the arc as its first three field goals came on 3-pointers from Blue, Dobbs, and graduate student Brooks Allen, including an and-one conversion on Dobbs' 3-point make.
In total, the Tommies' first 22 points resulted from shots taken from 3-point range, including perfect 3-of-3 trips to the free throw line for Dobbs and graduate student Parker Bjorklund. Junior Ben Nau and freshman Carter Bjerke made their first field goals of the night to push the Tommies' early lead to 22-14.

Bjorklund added the Purple's sixth 3-pointer over the first 13 minutes to reach the first double digit lead. Idaho followed with a 16-3 run over a span of nearly five minutes, shooting 4-of-7 from the field and limiting St. Thomas to 1-of-8 overall and 1-of-7 on 3-pointers. Nau sank his second 3-pointer of the game to hold off an attacking Vandal squad, 32-28, but the Vandals continued their run to grab their first lead of the game, 34-32. Blue snapped the run with another 3-pointer while graduate student Raheem Anthony put in a shot clock beating 3-pointer to give the Toms the lead heading into halftime, 38-26.

Bjorklund, who entered the game needing 15 points to reach 1,000 in his St. Thomas career, scored six of the Tommies' nine points to open the second half, finishing his night with 12 points. Blue was the first Tommie to reach double digit scoring after hitting a 3-pointer, part of a 7-0 run with Bjorklund out of halftime.

St. Thomas held a 57-47 lead midway through the second half before Idaho went on an 8-3 run, forcing two turnovers and holding the Tommies to 1-of-8 shooting. The Vandals trailed by just two, 57-55, when Bjerke put in his second 3-pointer to spark a 13-2 run to take a game-high 13-point lead, 70-57. St. Thomas converted 5-of-6 from the free throw line to seal the win.

The Purple, who entered the game ranked 22nd in the nation with 9.8 turnovers per game, gave away just eight turnovers and improved to 10-0 when leading at halftime.

TOP TOMMIES

Senior Drake Dobbs led the Tommies with 16 points on 3-of-6 shooting, including 2-of-5 from 3-point range. He led the team in scoring for the second time this season and saw his assist-to-turnover ratio improve to 4.3 after totaling a team-high six assists to one turnover.
Sophomore Kendall Blue scored 15 points for the second straight game and has shot 5-of-10 from the field for the third straight game. He also added five rebounds and five assists for the second time over the last three games, marking the fourth instance of at least 10 points, five rebounds, and five assists in his career. Blue's four 3-pointers is two shy of his season high and third game of the season with at least three.
Graduate student Parker Bjorklund scored 12 points on 4-of-9 shooting along with five rebounds, three assists, and one steal. He's scored in double digits in 22 of the last 26 games and is just three points away from becoming the 39th member of the 1,000-point club at St. Thomas.
Freshman Carter Bjerke led the bench with 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting, including two 3-pointers, for his sixth career double-digit scoring game.

QUOTEABLES
Head Coach Johnny Tauer following the Big Sky-Summit win over Idaho:
"Idaho has a really good team. I think they play a lot like we do in the sense that they've got a lot of versatile offensive weapons. They're skilled and unselfish and typically four of five of their guys can shoot threes.

"I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about our defensive effort. We continue to be really tough minded and I thought the second half was the difference. In the second half, up until the last minute, Idaho had 21 points and that was a collective effort."

UP NEXT
The Tommies return to Schoenecker Arena Saturday, Jan. 6 to close out the Big Sky-Summit Challenge against Sacramento State. The first meeting of the all-time series will be at 7 p.m. in St. Paul.

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Team Stats

Drake Dobbs

Kendall Blue

Parker Bjorklund

Carter Bjerke

Players Mentioned

Brooks Allen

Raheem Anthony

Carter Bjerke

Parker Bjorklund

Kendall Blue

Drake Dobbs

Ben Nau