Led by point guard Erik Tengwall’s 16 points, the No. 11-ranked St. Thomas men’s basketball team completed the regular-season sweep of St. Olaf with a 55-51 victory Wednesday night at Skoglund Center in Northfield, Minn.
Since losing to St. Thomas (19-3, 16-1) on Jan. 8, St. Olaf (17-5, 14-3) had rattled off 10 straight wins and entered Wednesday’s game trailing St. Thomas by only one game in the race for the conference title. However, the win gives the Tommies a commanding two-game lead with only three games to play in the regular season.
“Obviously this has a lot of playoff implications in terms of the championship and everything like that,” Tengwall said. “But we stayed poised, and we trusted our coaches, and we trusted each other, and we executed and ended up getting the win.”
The conference title implications were not lost on the St. Olaf students who packed the gym in a whiteout in anticipation for the game.
“It’s exhilarating,” Tengwall said. “You walk into a gym like this and during warmups the students are all there chanting at you, and it’s easy to let your emotions get the best of you and come out a little anxious.”
Despite the pressure and excitement leading up to the game, the Tommies came out in the first half and played what coach John Tauer said was “the best we’ve played all year.”
“I thought our defense was great, and I thought our rebounding was exceptional. We didn’t shoot the ball, especially in the first half, very well,” Tauer said. “I thought the first half, with the exception of our shooting, was the best we’ve played all year.”
The St. Thomas defense set the tone for the Tommies from the opening tip, and points came at a premium for both teams throughout the first half. The Tommies forced the Oles to shoot just 35 percent from the field in the first half and held the Oles to only 20 first-half points. However St. Thomas wasn’t much better on offense, shooting just 37.9 percent in the first, tallying 28 points.
“Credit to St. Olaf: they played really good on defense, as you can see with the low-scoring game,” guard Marcus Alipate said. “I think a lot of teams, what they do is they try to get all the points back right away, whereas with us, we try to get a good shot, get to the foul line, kind of quiet their crowd, stop their run. So, I think that’s what we’re really good at.”
In the second half, both teams’ shooting percentages improved in the final 20 minutes. The Oles came out of the break with a quick 4-0 run to cut the Tommie lead in half, however Tengwall responded with a layup and drew a foul on the shot to extend the Tommie lead back to seven.
The Tommies’ ability to respond to Ole runs with timely shots became a common theme in the second half. After grabbing the lead with 15:48 remaining in the first half, St. Thomas led for the rest of the game, including the entirety of the second half.
“We know that basketball is a game of runs, and we knew that they were going to hit a few big shots, the crowd was going to get behind them, they were going to get loud and we just had to maintain our poise,” Tengwall said.
St. Olaf finally trimmed the St. Thomas lead to just three points with 3:34 remaining in the game and threatened to grab the lead for the first time since the first half. However, the Tommies, who were in the bonus for the final seven minutes of the game, managed to salt away the game from the free-throw line and scored eight of their final 10 points from the charity stripe. St. Thomas also outrebounded St. Olaf 37-22 and held a 12-5 advantage in offensive boards.
“I thought our guys played with unparalleled focus for 40 minutes and contested shots and rebounded, and I’m really proud of them tonight,” Tauer said. “We’re based on defense, unselfishness and trust, and I thought all three of those things were really evident throughout the game tonight.”
The Tommies will travel to Concordia-Moorhead Saturday, where a win will clinch at least a share of the conference title. St. Thomas is also scheduled to play third-place Gustavus Feb. 19, before hosting rival St. John’s University in the final game of the regular season Feb. 22.
Jacob Sevening can be reached at seve8586@stthomas.edu.