Early Success at the SLT
Sioux Falls, South Dakota-The University of St Thomas Basketball Teams now cannot leave Sioux Falls without one win under their belt, with a victory on the Women’s side secured, before facing the #1 Seed SDSU Jackrabbits.
On the Men’s Side, they are playing their travel partner, the Western Illinois Leathernecks, for a chance to play Oral Roberts. in the semifinals.
On the road this team has struggled against conference foes, going 2-7. However, this is as good of a “road” matchup as St. Thomas could ask for, in Sioux Falls against a team that historically has not traveled well, and a team UST has beat relatively recently.
St. Thomas -3.5 vs Western Illinois @Denny Sanford Premier Center 6:00 PM
Western is not built to have a run in a tournament, functionally they play six guys for all of the 200 available minutes they have in a game for players. They might be built to win this game, as their players will be well rested to handle that level of minutes.
In the first game, St. Thomas shot from long range woefully going 2-16, in a low scoring affair before losing 60-56. Western allows a lot of offense against them, with an opposing FG% of 53.5%. For them to win this game, they just need to find their players in situations where they can make those high percentage plays.
In terms of Stars, Western cannot do better than 6-2 Sr Trenton Massner, who achieved All-Summit First Team earlier this week. Unlike Grant Nelson, or Vanover, UST can guard Massner-types and he had only 33 against UST in both games. In terms of atmosphere UST could not have a better draw than Western Illinois, and then facing off against ORU if they win. Avoiding the huge Dakota school crowds is ideal for UST, as it allows them favorable conditions to play in.
UST’s victory I think is going to be as simple as finding open three point shots and making them…I know very groundbreaking basketball insight there. I do not think anybody on UST needs to have a herculean effort to get over Massner. Last time around WIU went route one, to their own detriment. I am taking UST in this one, the last time they had a week off and needed to play WIU, they dominated them.
Prediction
UST 74 WIU 64