The University of St. Thomas Tommies were sent home a day before the Championship game by the program that has won this tournament 6 times in the last 12 seasons, the Jackrabbits of South Dakota State. UST-49 SDSU-59. SDSU completes a 3-0 season sweep vs St. Thomas. Coach Hendo described his strategy for UST, “Our emphasis was to keep them out of the paint” The first shot of the game was Parker Bjorklund attempting to shoot over WK3, and it was blocked. That block would be the earliest indicator that this was going to be a defensive battle.
St. Thomas jumped out to an early lead, and around the 16 minute mark of the first half, SDSU got the lead and never let it go. This was a very physical, but not chippy, basketball teams. Both teams combined for a conference game season record 30 fouls. Inside the Sanford Premier Center, the crowd was decidedly for SDSU to the extent the Summit League Player of the Year, Zeke Mayo described the crowd’s impact as, “It gives us energy just like back in Frost.” Ideally the delegation from St. Paul at the Sanford Center will slowly grow over the upcoming Division 1 seasons.
St. Thomas went into the half only down three, 25-28 despite shooting 8/28 and 4/14 from beyond the arc. St. Thomas made their free throws in the first half going 5-5 to help keep it within one possession. St. Thomas yesterday got 22 points off of Turnovers in the first half against the Bison, they only had 4 tonight. Not unexpected from a disciplined Jackrabbit team.
The second half was defined by SDSU and UST struggling to take ground from each other. UST never desperately trying to catch up, just playing consistent basketball. St. Thomas to their credit did shoot better overall, but did not have the success from deep they enjoyed against NDSU. Their looks were solid, but took a long time to develop, and the ball was not cooperating with the shots.
Kendall Blue is the overall point leader for both games, he had 13 in this game. His 13 tied the overall point scorer for SDSU, Charlie Easley. Brooks Allen’s 11 coming on 3 made deep three’s and 2 free throws tied SDSU’s second leading scorer, Zeke Mayo. SDSU’s 59 points was not only their lowest point scoring game of the season, but was also the lowest number that a team was able to win with in the league. St. Thomas’s 49 was their lowest point scoring outing of the year.
After the game, Coach Tauer described the match, “I thought that was a phenomenal college basketball game.” Coach Tauer had a lot of reasons to be proud of that effort. Brooks Allen and Parker Bjorklund were the player representatives discussing the game, and for good reason. They are the veteran guys who have developed and come a long way from November 9th, 2021 at Chicago State, the UST MBB D1 Debut. Parker described the defensive effort “I thought we were super connected out there” with Brooks following up, “Each possession is physical. they guard as a team, we guard as a team as well.” UST basketball is known to play at a pretty slow pace, and the last two rank among the slowest of the season. Coach Tauer when asked if that pace was intentional or a reflection of the type of shots, he responded it was more of a refelction on both teams taking their time to setup the offense, and the lack of fast-break opportunities. JT elaborated in playoff basketball, both teams are more inclined to play closer to the chest, essentially waiting for great not good opportunities.
Looking ahead for St. Thomas, they have to replace a lot of veteran minutes. If we look at the 200 minutes that were played tonight in the SL Semis, and assume nobody eligible comes back for UST, Coach Tauer has to replace 124 of those minutes, over 60%. What St. Thomas should hang their hat on is that they went from worst to first on defense in three seasons, have not been an easy out for the #1 seed in back to back years, and use that as a building block for the future. This is the end of an era for the D3->D1 Pioneers and over the last three season won 49 games, improved to becone the best defense in the league, and can hand this program off to the next group of guys to keep building this program.