Men’s hoops prepares for third-ranked Johnnies

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The St. Thomas men’s basketball team is preparing for its final regular season game Saturday against rival St. John’s at what promises to be a packed Schoenecker Arena.

The Tommies (14-10 overall, 12-7 MIAC) haven’t had the season they were quite hoping for. For the first time in 14 years, the Tommies didn’t win the MIAC regular season title. The young squad limped into the six-team MIAC tournament as the sixth seed.

Forward Ryan Boll drives against an Auggie defender in a Jan. 8 loss to Augsburg. Boll leads the Tommies with 31.6 minutes a game and 14.6 points a game. (Esmee Verschoor/ Tommie Media)

The Johnnies (22-2 overall, 18-1 MIAC) cruised to a MIAC regular season title behind their top-ranked scoring attack. The Johnnies average 83 points a game and shoot a conference-high 42 percent from behind the arc.

In the first matchup in Collegeville, St. John’s relied on its stars, junior guard David Stokman and senior forward Tyler Weiss, for a 77-62 win. The two combined for 46 points and 13 rebounds.

“They are a really potent inside-outside duo, and they have played a lot of games for them,” St. Thomas coach John Tauer said. “They have seen a lot of different things over their time together.”

Stokman has played extremely well against the Tommies since becoming a starter in his second year. In his last four games against St. Thomas, he has averaged just over 21 points per contest.

“I’m very excited. It’s one of those games where, coming to St. Thomas, you always hear about (it), and it’s kind of the one game you circle on the calendar,” first-year guard Ryan Lindberg said. “It’s a big rivalry game. We’re all really excited for it.”

Lindberg will get his first taste of the madness that the Tommie faithful promise to bring Saturday, and he’s hoping to use that to jumpstart this talented team into a postseason run.

“Obviously, we all still have that confidence that we could still go on an amazing run here to end the season,” he said,” but a win on Saturday would definitely show all the other teams in the conference that coming into the MIAC playoffs we’re definitely a team to be worried about.”

“We can look at it as they have everything to lose and we have everything to gain, so I believe we can use that to our advantage,” Lindberg added.

If MIAC standings hold, St. Thomas will play Bethel on the road next Wednesday night in the first round of the six-team playoff.

Brady Halbmaier can be reached at Halb2084@stthomas.edu