Notables
-Saints will be No. 3 seed in next week's UMAC Tournament
-CSS was 17-of-22 from the foul line
-CSS wins at least 12 conference games in back-to-back years for the first time in program history
ST. BONIFACIUS, Minn. (
csssaints.com) – The St. Scholastica men's basketball team won its fourth straight game, three of which on the road, to end the regular season on Saturday with an 85-73 victory over Crown College.
Redemption
The Storm stunned the Saints earlier this season with their first-ever win in the Reif Gymnasium. In that loss, the Saints led by 24 points in the first half. The script would be flipped in today's contest.
CSS led early in the contest, but Crown took its first lead four minutes into the contest. The score was tied 12-12 with 14 minutes left in the half, when the Storm went on a 16-5 scoring run over the next six minutes to take a 28-17 lead with nine minutes to go in the half.
The Saints responded with a 9-0 run to cut the margin back to two quickly. However, the Storm maintained the lead until a
Brandon Newman (Barnum, Minn./Barnum HS) three-point-play tied it at 34. The teams exchanged buckets in the final 1:20 as the score at halftime read 36-36.
St. Scholastica regained the lead two minutes into the second half on a pair of
Zach Dahlman (Braham, Minn./Braham HS) free throws. A
Kory Deadrick (Esko, Minn./Esko HS) 3-pointer extended the lead to 47-41. CSS still led by six with 14 minutes remaining when Crown went on an 11-2 run to take a 57-54.
Newman would answer with a 3-pointer to tie the game for the fifth time. After the sixth tie of the game with eight minutes remaining the Saints would start to pull away just like Friday night. CSS went on a 9-0 spurred by a
Connor Gray (Superior, Wis./Superior HS) three-point-play and a
Collin Anderson (Eagan, Minn./Eagan HS) 3-pointer.
The margin grew to 14 following another Anderson 3-pointer with three minutes left and the Saints went on to win by a final of 85-73.
Top Performances for CSS
Newman led the Saints with 19 points. Anderson finished with 14 points, 12 of which coming in the second half. Dahlman chipped in 13 points and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.
Top Performances for the Opponent
Austin VanDerHeyden finished with a game-high 22 points for the Storm (8-17, 5-11 UMAC). James Brown added 20 points.
Up Next
The Saints (16-9, 12-4 UMAC) will be the No. 3 seed in next week's Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) Tournament because Bethany Lutheran College defeated regular season champion University of Northwestern (Minn.) today to clinch the No. 2 seed. CSS and Bethany Lutheran will face each other in the semifinals Wednesday night in Mankato.
