Behind guard Cortez Tillman’s 20 points off the bench, the No. 3-ranked St. Thomas men’s basketball team pulled off the regular season sweep of St. John’s with a 79-72 victory Saturday in front of a raucous crowd of more than 1,500 at Schoenecker Arena.

The Tommies (15-1 overall, 10-1 MIAC) defeated the Johnnies (9-7 overall, 7-4 MIAC) after overcoming a 2-point halftime deficit. It was the tale of two halves for St. Thomas as the team struggled in the first and turned things around in the second.

“St. John’s is a very good team, and we knew they would give us everything we wanted and more. In the first half, I don’t think we defended well, and I thought we really hurried on offense,” coach John Tauer said. “I thought the second half really was the inverse of that. I thought we dug in and defended and made them take tough shots. I think we had seven turnovers in the first half and two in the second.“

St. John’s shot over 72 percent from beyond the arc in the first half, and guard Mitchell Kuck led the Johnnies from three-point range, going 8 for 12. Kuck scored 24 of his game-high 28 points on 3-pointers.

“We really had to make an adjustment after the first half with Kuck catching fire. That’s just an adjustment we made extending the pressure, making them make quicker decisions and turning turnovers into quick buckets,” Tillman said. “They beat us twice last year, so it’s obviously a huge win to … get back at them.”

St. Thomas separated itself from St. John’s when guard Taylor Montero caught fire to start the second half, hitting multiple threes that helped reclaim the lead. St. Thomas continued its dominance with Tillman scoring in the paint and beyond the arc in the clutch.

“It was just teammates getting me the ball when I was open. It was just how our offense goes. I was just hitting today,” Tillman said. “One thing about our team is that we are deep. Anyone on our team can produce when we need them to.”

St. Thomas got away from its balanced offense Saturday night; its guards stood out on the scoring sheet. It was a very physical game in the paint, making it tough for St. Thomas’ post players to score. Forwards Conner Nord and Ryan Saarela combined for just 12 points.

“They have some big posts, and obviously we’re pretty big ourselves,” Nord said. “They let a lot of things go, and I didn’t have a problem with the way they called it as long as they called it both ways.”

The Tommies capped off arguably the toughest week on their schedule thus far, defeating three of the top five teams in the MIAC in Bethel, St. Olaf and St. John’s. Tauer said he was proud of his team but was quick to mention the schedule doesn’t get any easier.

“That’s four games in eight days, and the last three have been against really strong opponents. Wednesday we have Gustavus, and obviously they beat us the first game,” Tauer said. “Then we get Augsburg next Saturday, so that’s a run of five straight games against five team that are all candidates to make the playoffs.”

The Tommies are back in action at home Wednesday night against Gustavus.

Jordan Kruger can be reached at krug6172@stthomas.edu.