Effective defense caps Men’s Basketball regular season with 68-53 win over Omaha

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Effective defense from St. Thomas men's basketball capped the regular season with a 68-53 win over Omaha Saturday night in Lee & Penny Anderson Arena. The Tommies (23-8, 12-4 Summit League) held the Mavericks (15-16, 8-8 Summit League) to a season low 32.2 percent shooting while Nolan Minessale recorded his 20th 20-point game of the season.

FIRST HALF: Nolan Minessale opened the scoring with a layup before Omaha answered with a 9-3 burst, hitting four straight field goals to seize early momentum. St. Thomas regained the lead briefly at 10-9 behind a Ben Oosterbaan 3-pointer and a Ryan Dufault layup, but the Mavericks responded with a 10-4 run to move in front 19-14. Omaha pushed its advantage to double digits, 26-16, with seven consecutive points before Jermaine Coleman knocked down a corner 3 to cut into the deficit.

From there, the Tommie defense flipped the half. Omaha's final points came with 5:35 remaining as St. Thomas held the Mavericks scoreless over the final stretch, limiting them to 0-of-8 shooting with a turnover. Minessale fueled the comeback with nine of the team's final 12 points, including back-to-back driving layups that forced a timeout and swung momentum. The Tommies closed on a 15-2 run to take a 31-28 lead into halftime despite shooting 38.7 percent (12-of-31) from the floor and 4-of-17 from 3-point range.

SECOND HALF: Nick Janowski and Minessale scored the first buckets after the break, extending Omaha's drought to nearly two and a half minutes and capping a 17-0 Tommie run across halves. Janowski drilled a step-back 3-pointer, and Carter Bjerke followed with a triple of his own to stretch the lead to double figures at 42-32. Bjerke added another 3-pointer to ignite an 8-1 surge that featured a Herro 3-pointer and steal leading to a Dufault layup, pushing the margin to 50-35 midway through the half.

St. Thomas maintained control down the stretch as Minessale hit a 3-pointer and Dufault and Janowski added layups to extend the lead to 16, eventually reaching a game-high 20-point cushion at 65-45 with seven minutes to play. The Tommie defense dominated the final 20 minutes, holding Omaha to 29.6 percent (8-of-27) shooting and just 1-of-10 from beyond the arc. St. Thomas shot 50 percent (14-of-28) in the half with six 3-pointers to secure the 68-53 victory.

TOMMIE TIDBITS

St. Thomas limited Omaha to 53 points after allowing 98 in the first meeting. For the second straight game, the Tommies held their opponent to a season-low field goal percentage as the Mavericks shot 32.2 percent overall (19-59) and 20.8 percent (5-24) from 3-point range.
The Tommies won the rebounding battle, 42-34, and are now 9-3 when outrebounding their opponent.
St. Thomas outscored Omaha 32-22 in the paint and 10-5 from 3-point range.
Nolan Minessale led all scorers with 20 points, his 20th 20-point game of the season, ranking third nationally. He shot 7-of-9 from the field and added four rebounds, three assists and two steals.
Carter Bjerke, Nick Janowski and Ben Oosterbaan each scored nine points in the starting lineup, while Austin Herro totaled eight points, eight rebounds, five assists, two steals and just one turnover.
St. Thomas finishes the regular season 23-8 overall and 12-4 in the Summit League, earning the No. 2 seed in the Summit League Championship. Head Coach Johnny Tauer has guided the program to 10 20-win seasons and 11 seasons with at least 12 conference victories since taking over in 2011.

UP NEXT
St. Thomas enters the Summit League Championship tournament as the No. 2 seed and will face No. 7 seed South Dakota State on Thursday, March 5 at about 8:30 p.m. CT (25 minutes after the 6 p.m. CT quarterfinal game) at the Denny Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls, S.D. The Tommies swept the Jackrabbits during the regular season series and will play SDSU for the second time ever in the league tournament.

FOLLOW ALONG
For more information on St. Thomas Men's Basketball, follow along on X at @TommieMBBall and Instagram at @tommiehoops. Tommie Athletics is now on TikTok at @tommiesports.

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-- St. Thomas Athletics --

Effective defense caps Men’s Basketball regular season with 68-53 win over Omaha

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Team Stats

Nolan Minessale

Nick Janowski

Carter Bjerke

Ben Oosterbaan

Players Mentioned

Carter Bjerke

Jermaine Coleman

Ryan Dufault

Austin Herro

Nick Janowski

Nolan Minessale

Ben Oosterbaan

University of St. Thomas Athletics