Tommie Sports - Men's Basketball
Men's Hoops falls in the end at Gustavus, 56-51
L, 51-56at Gustavus (M), January 13, 2010
Cold shooting and turnovers doomed St. Thomas Wednesday night as Gustavus Adolphus snapped the Tommies' record 32-game MIAC winning streak by winning a showdown of the unbeaten conference leaders, 56-51.
St. Thomas trailed much of the game but went ahead 51-49 on a three-point shot by Tyler Nicolai with 3:23 remaining. The Gusties shut down the Tommies for the rest of the game, scoring the last seven points on a layup and five free-throws.
With the win, Gustavus (10-3) is alone atop the MIAC with an 8-0 record. St. Thomas (11-2), rated No. 5 in the nation by d3hoops.com, fell to 7-1 in the conference.
The entire game was marked by rugged defense. The Tommies fell behind 9-1 and 20-10 before an 11-0 run capped by an Alex Healy three-point shot gave them their first lead. The score at halftime was 26-26.
Gustavus built a 38-32 lead six minutes into the second half, but St. Thomas rallied to tie the game 43-43 on two Joe Scott free-throws at the 6:46 mark. Nicolai hit back-to-back treys to give the Tommies their last lead, but they missed four shots and committed three turnovers in the last three minutes. They shot 40 percent to Gustavus' 41 percent and had 19 turnovers to the Gusties¹ 11.
Nicolai led the Tommies with 14 points, Teddy Archer had a season-high nine points and Alex Healy and Josh Peltier each had eight points and six boards.
St. Thomas returns to action Saturday against St. John¹s, with tipoff at 8 p.m. at the Gangelhoff Center at Concordia University-St. Paul. The Johnnies remain in third place at 6-2 after a loss to Hamline Wednesday night.
Seth Anderson scored four of his game-high 17 points to start a game-closing 7-0 run in the final 2:09 for Gustavus, which avenged three 2008-09 losses to St. Thomas.
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