Guard Grant Shaeffer’s 23 points helped carry the St. Thomas men’s basketball team to a nail-biting 69-66 victory and sixth consecutive win over the Bethel Royals Saturday.

St. Thomas (5-1 MIAC, 10-1 overall) took Bethel (4-2 MIAC, 9-2 overall) by storm in the first half, holding a 12-point lead at halftime. A flagging defense and ten missed free throws, however, eliminated the deficit and allowed Bethel to capitalize and tie the score back up.

The Tommies played the Royals three times last season, the most recent of which was the MIAC championship where the Tommies’ 66-63 victory clinched their spot in the playoffs. The teams went 1-1 against each other in the regular season. Coach John Tauer said St. Thomas and Bethel play equally strong games, so he knew this win wasn’t going to be handed to them.

“(Bethel’s) an outstanding team. There’s no doubt about that,” Tauer said. “These are those kind of games that sort of give you a barometer for where you’re at in the season, and both of us came in with 9-1 records so it was everything we expected it to be.”

The Tommies came out offensively strong in the first half with help from leading scorers Shaeffer, guard Cortez Tillman and guard Taylor Montero. A confident lead in the second half, however, wasn’t enough to secure an easy win. St. Thomas missed nearly half of its free throws after halftime, and a made jump shot and free throw by Bethel guard Derek Magnuson with five minutes left in the second half gave the Royals a one-point lead.

Shaeffer said losing a large lead is something the Tommies have already dealt with this year and is a focal area for improvement.

“That scenario we have to improve on,” Shaeffer said. “It’s happened a few times this year where we’re up 12 to 14 points with eight minutes left and we just have to finish it off. It happened with our loss at Carleton. That’s the main area we need to focus on is putting teams away.”

After losing the lead, the Tommies were able to score nine points and hold the Royals to five. Tauer said his focus for the team was strong and aggressive defense for the rest of the game.

“I thought with five minutes left, we really dug in on defense and made it a really difficult chore to score,” Tauer said. “I thought our guys inside really walled up and played with their bodies and made Bethel shoot over high hands which shows a lot of discipline and diligence on our guys’ part.”

Guard Ryan Saarela fouled twice and had one steal to keep Bethel from scoring after Magnuson tied things up. He attributed the loss of the halftime lead to a lack of energy in the second half, but was proud of the way the team picked up speed on defense.

“A turnover led to a 3-point basket by them and they kind of got some momentum,” Saarela said. “But from there I think we really dug in and stopped them to come out with the win.”

Shaeffer said he has faith that the team can improve from this game, and thinks the deep roster is going to help the Tommies stand out in the conference.

“We just gotta keep focusing on defense,” Shaeffer said. “If we keep a strong defense and rebound well, we’re going to become the team to beat. We have guys off the bench and our starters, everyone can score. If we can improve defense and free throws, we’ll be a tough team down the stretch.”

Tauer agreed and said the Tommies have a lot more to show.

“What we’re pleased with is we got a victory over a very good team,” Tauer said. “We also walk out of here knowing we have a lot to improve on because we didn’t play anywhere near where I think we’re capable of.”

The Tommies will face Augsburg next at Schoenecker Arena on Monday at 7 p.m.

Lauren Andrego can be reached at lauren.andrego@stthomas.edu.