Junior guard John Nance nailed two free throws to give the St. Thomas men’s basketball team a 76-74 overtime victory over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in the first round of the NCAA tournament Friday at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
The defending national champion Tommies trailed for the majority of the game, falling behind from the opening tip. But St. Thomas took its first lead with 1:15 remaining in the second half when sophomore forward Zach Riedeman slashed to the basket for an easy two points, giving his team a 64-63 edge.
C-M-S guard Chris Blees made one of two free throws to tie the game at 64. St. Thomas’ Will Deberg missed a desperate heave at the buzzer to send the game into overtime.
Riedeman, who missed two free throws with less than 20 seconds left in regulation, made one of two with 45 seconds left in overtime to give the Tommies a 74-72 lead. Blees tied it with two free throws with 23.4 seconds left. St. Thomas worked the clock down, and Nance was fouled with less than 10 seconds left.
He calmly sank both shots, and the Stags’ wild 3-point attempt at the gun hit the front of the rim, sending St. Thomas into the second round Saturday.
Deberg believes his team’s overtime play against Gustavus in the conference championship benefited it against the Stags.
“We knew what we had to do to execute under pressure,” Deberg said.
Deberg led the Tommies in scoring with 19 points, with 12 of his 19 coming from beyond the arc. Junior guard Noah Kaiser led the team in rebounds with seven, and Nance had a team-high four assists.
C-M-S jumped out to an early 5-0 lead. Nance was finally able to end his team’s cold streak by spinning past his defender to the basket for an easy two points, putting the Tommies on the board three minutes into the game.
The Stags dominated the first half due to the solid play from Blees, who has won the SCIAC Player of the Year award three times. He led all scorers with 23 points.
Deberg said Blees was a tough player and thought his team did its best containing him.
The Tommies tried to put the pressure on Blees throughout the game. Guard Eric Tengwall said that the team’s “main focus” on defense was stopping Blees, which proved to be a tough assignment.
“We would send two or three players to trap him, but then he would dish it out to another player on the wing, who would nail a 3,” Tengwall said.
C-M-S shot 50 percent from the 3-point line in the first half, which aided its double-digit lead.
St. Thomas’ two offensive leaders, Nance and Deberg, went 2 for 10 shooting in the first half. The Tommies ended the first half down 34-26. Deberg said that the team’s poor start was due to nerves from some players’ first experience playing in the NCAA tournament.
“For most of us, this was a new level of play,” Deberg said. “A lot of us had to adjust to different roles in the postseason that did not get much exposure in the tournament last year.’’
St. Thomas was able to fight back into the game thanks to its full-court defense. The team forced several Stag turnovers and steals that turned into key baskets from Riedeman, Kaiser and Tengwall.
Tengwall said his team’s intensity was the difference in the second half.
“We had no intensity in the first half, and it took some yelling to get us going,” Tengwall said. “It started with our full-court pressure, and we were able to fight back into the game with our defense.”
Deberg scored six points in overtime, including three free throws.
“I have shot a million free throws in my life. I knew if I was calm and really focused, I would make them,” Deberg said.
St. Thomas (22-6) will face UW-Whitewater (24-4) at 7 p.m. Saturday at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Warhawks forward Chris Davis scored 35 points, on 15-18 shooting, to propel UW-Whitewater to a 83-68 win over Northwestern College (Minn) in the first round of the NCAA tournament Friday night.
Hayley Schnell can be reached at schn3912@stthomas.edu