St. Thomas sent NDSU yesterday with a very slow, efficent, and dominant offensive performance. UST and NDSU each had multiple 10+ scoring runs. Their effort was rewarded with the opportunity to face the #1 Seed, the South Dakota State Jackrabbits, and the Summit League Player of the Year, Zeke Mayo.
How the other games went:
1/11/2024 SDSU-81 St. Thomas 80
Zeke Mayo won it at the buzzer in a game where UST had a chance to put it away down the stretch. Notably in this game, the breakout stars of the tournament for UST, Ryan Dufault, and Carter Bjerke had 0 points. St. Thomas led by 8 at the Under 4 media timeout, and lost in a very similar to fashion to the North Dakota fighting hawks loss to Omaha yesterday, where the star player leads a run to end the game. This game had 69 possessions, compared to NDSU-UST yesterday which only had 57. St. Thomas allowed SDSU to dictate the pace of the game, which they need to do tonight in order to win.
2/24/2024 SDSU-77 St. Thomas-72
St. Thomas in this one also had a sizeable lead later in the game, 9 points with 14 minutes to go. Appel Easley and Mayo had a one minute 10-0 run to take the lead, and essentially held onto it the rest of the way. St. Thomas yesterday had a sizeable lead to be able to weather NDSU’s multiple double digit scoring runs, tonight I would be surprised if UST is able to build a healthy enough lead to be able to weather that.
How SDSU is playing:
South Dakota State is currently on a 6 game winning streak. They also play similar to the bison, but play a bit faster. They are 18th in the country at their 2 point percentage. William Kyle III is the player to watch tonight. Yesterday, St. Thomas was able to hold both NDSU Big Men, Andrew Morgan and Noah Feddersen to a pretty bad night. WK3 has recently been huge both in terms of scoring and with it the momentum for SDSU with his insanely athletic dunks.
How the game needs to go:
SDSU has had the day off and certainly will be keying in on being patient to whoever has the best look. Similar to UST, SDSU has shown a very balanced and selfless scoring attack. Appel, Easley, Kyle, and Mayo were within 4 points of each other scoring against ORU ranging from 18-14 points. There is going to be a lot of Blue at the Sanford Center. According to the Analytics people, UST should win this game if it were played in a truly neutral location, which the Sanford Center is not. St. Thomas tonight also probably cannot to get like 25 points off turnovers again tonight, as the Jacks are really good about keeping possession of the ball. Teams against SDSU shoot the ball from deep 46.7% of the time, and they are 297th in the country at defending the long ball. This game is going to be closer than the NDSU game, but in the end, I think St. Thomas will be playing for the Championship game Tuesday.
Prediction: UST 73 SDSU 69