The St. Thomas men’s basketball team dominated St. John’s 94-63 Saturday, led by forward Zach Riedeman’s 22 points.

The second-ranked Tommies (14-0 overall, 9-0 MIAC) dominated the Johnnies (3-10 overall, 2-7 MIAC) with 23 unanswered points in the first half. St. John’s turned the ball over 20 times in the first half and twice in the second.

After a slow start, the Tommies took control of the game after hitting three consecutive 3-point plays midway through the first half. St. Thomas capped its high-scoring run with an alley-oop dunk from forward Josh Pella.

Center Tommy Hannon said the dunk was a perfect morale boost for the team moving forward.

“We just called a play to get in the back screen, and luckily (Pella) went up and grabbed it and threw it down,” Hannon said. “We just got the extra little boost that we needed, put the press on and really kind of put the stamp on it.”

Much of the Tommies’ success came from the constant pressure applied to the Johnnie offense. St. Thomas applied the full-court press for the majority of the game.

Coach John Tauer said his team’s success came from the ability to rotate players on and off the court.

“Our depth does a few things: it certainly wears the other teams down…it lets us stay fresh and really keep our pressure up on defense, and the other thing is it insulates us from injury,” Tauer said. “That depth allows us to play the style and tempo on both defense and offense.”

Within the team’s depth lies Riedeman, who chipped in six rebounds and was 2-for-2 for 3-pointers. Hannon also had eight rebounds that helped secure the Tommie win. Overall, the Tommies had 33 rebounds, almost doubling St. John’s 18.

Forward John Nance raked in 11 points, going 7-for-7 from the free-throw line.

Hannon said his team’s balanced plan of attack and rotations led the Tommies to victory.

“We got 10 or 11 guys that can rotate in and we knew eventually throughout the first half and into the second half, we were going to wear (St. John’s) down,” Hannon said.”We got a lot of layups and just on offense we had to move more.”

The win was an emotional victory for St. Thomas after St. John’s swept last year’s two meetings. The Tommies did not get sucked into the hype of the rivalry, nor the pressure of game’s telecast on local cable, Tauer said.

After Saturday’s win, the Tommies are expected to move to No. 1 in the nation after a loss from this week’s No. 1 team North Central (Ill.) Wednesday.

Guard Taylor Montero said the Tommies will continue to focus on their progress and not the rankings.

“It’s really just a number. We want to get to the ultimate goal of national champion,” Montero said, “and right now it’s the middle of the season, and anything can happen.”

Alex Goering can be reached at goer8777@stthomas.edu.