Tommies take first place following 95-84 win over Mavericks

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Drake Dobbs' third consecutive 20-point scoring game paced St. Thomas men's basketball to a 95-84 win over Omaha Saturday night, handing the Tommies (20-7, 10-2 Summit League) sole possession of first place in the conference standings with four games to play.

The win pushed the Purple to 20 on the season, the ninth season under Head Coach Johnny Tauer with as many victories. St. Thomas is the only team to transition to Division I and record at least 19 wins in three straight seasons and is one of three transition teams with back-to-back 20-win seasons.

Dobbs led all scorers with 23 points, tying a career high, on 6-of-9 shooting, including 4-of-4 from long range, while adding three assists and no turnovers. He became the first Tommie with three straight 20-point games since Andrew Rohde when he closed the 2022-23 with three straight.

St. Thomas led for nearly 35 minutes of game play as the largest and last lead held by Omaha came with over 17 minutes to go in the opening half. The game-separating run came midway in the first half as back-to-back 3-pointers by Carter Bjerke and Ben Nau, followed by a block and fastbreak dunk by Nolan Minessale, pushed the lead to 27-17.

The Tommies shot 50.0 percent (15-30) overall over the first 20 minutes to take a 45-34 lead into halftime. Despite Omaha answering to shoot 60.7 percent (17-28) from the floor in the second half, the St. Thomas lead never dropped below five. Dobbs reached the 20-point mark with the first of two free throws with 1:17 remaining in the game, started a trend of 11-of-12 makes at the charity stripe by the Purple to end the game.

TOMMIE TIDBITS

St. Thomas has now won 20 games in a season nine times under head coach Johnny Tauer. The Tommies have totaled 69 wins through its transition period, tied for third most among all transition teams since 2000.
Saturday was the second consecutive sold out crowd in Schoenecker Arena with an attendance of 2,008. It was the third largest crowd in the facility's history.
The Tommies have won 16 straight games at Schoenecker Arena dating back to last season, which is tied for the longest active streak in the nation. Over the past three seasons, St. Thomas has gone 36-4 at home as its .900 winning percentage ranks among the top 20 in the nation during that span.
Dobbs, who had never scored more than 19 points prior to Feb. 6, tied a career high 23 points as part of three consecutive 20-point games. After scoring 23 points at South Dakota State, he totaled 21 on Feb. 8 at Denver. Dobbs recorded his seventh game of the season with three assists and no turnovers and has an assist-to-turnover ratio of 3.94 over the last 18 games.
Dobbs has led the team in scoring four times this season, three coming over the last three games.
Four Tommies recorded at least 10 points for the third straight game, the second such streak this season of at least three games. St. Thomas began the season with four straight games of double figure scoring by at least four players.
Miles Barnstable scored 17 points and added three steals, two blocks, two rebounds and one assist. Nolan Minessale added 15 points on 4-of-7 shooting with five assists, three rebounds, two blocks and one steal. Minessale continues to lead the Summit League in blocks with 30 on the season, eight more than the next highest.

UP NEXT
St. Thomas makes its final road trip of the season Feb. 19 at South Dakota and Feb. 22 at Oral Roberts. The Tommies are looking for their first road win against the Coyotes while going for their fourth consecutive win overall against the Golden Eagles.

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-- St. Thomas Athletics --

Tommies take first place following 95-84 win over Mavericks

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Team Stats

Drake Dobbs

Miles Barnstable

Nolan Minessale

Kendall Blue

Players Mentioned

Miles Barnstable

Carter Bjerke

Drake Dobbs

Nolan Minessale

Ben Nau

University of St. Thomas Athletics