Whitewater, Wis.– Six players scored in double figures for the Tommies, but it wasn’t enough as the No. 18-ranked St. Thomas men’s basketball team lost to Augustana 88-77 in the first round of the NCAA tournament Friday night at Kachel Gymnasium.
While the Tommies had no problem putting up points, the Vikings connected on 69 percent of their shots and repeatedly made clutch shots down the stretch. Coach John Tauer said his team did a good job of forcing turnovers but may have overcommitted occasionally.
“We knew we were gonna have to keep them off the glass and keep them out of transition, (and) we probably didn’t do as good of a job of that as we would have liked,” Tauer said. “Our guys showed tremendous effort, and at the end of the day, they made a lot of shots and give a lot of credit to them; they’re a great team.”
St. Thomas and Augustana exchanged buckets early in the game, and with the Tommies down 17-11, forward Ryan Saarela drained a baseline jump shot to make it 17-13 with just under 13 minutes left in the first half.
The Vikings switched up between man and 2-3 zone throughout the game and were able to force the Tommies into committing 17 turnovers, with 11 coming in the second half. Midway through the first half, after two offensive rebounds, forward Zach Riedeman grabbed a loose ball and sunk a wide-open 3-pointer to make it 24-19.
With just over four minutes left in the first half, Augustana appeared to have a wide-open layup when forward Josh Pella rejected the shot attempt, keeping the score 31-23. Pella was active on defense all game collecting 4 steals.
“We knew going into this game, with their size, that this would be a good matchup for Josh,” Tauer said. “I think for four years he’s been the consummate teammate and tonight, brought a tremendous amount of energy, and I thought he played very well.”
The Tommies made an important run before halftime when guard Cortez Tillman found guard Taylor Montero for a 3-pointer from the wing, and on the next possession Tillman converted an and one to make it 39-33 going into the break.
St. Thomas found itself down 17 points with 13:27 to play. After guard Marcus Alipate drained a 3-pointer, Alipate drove baseline on the next possession and forced an and one to make it a two-possession game.
That was the closest St. Thomas would get, as Augustana stretched its lead to 13 points with 5:04 left in the game. The Vikings outrebounded the Tommies 33-20 in the game and shot 75 percent from the field in the second half.
“We were trying to use our quickness against their size, obviously we were a little smaller than them, that was big, we didn’t think they could keep up with us,” Pella said. “But they kept pushing the ball, we didn’t get back, and they were able to get some offensive rebounds down the stretch.”
Riedeman, one of four seniors, said it won’t be the games that he’ll miss most about playing basketball.
“It’s the practices, the bus rides, you know it’s all those little things that you’re not gonna have come Monday morning,” Riedeman said. “I think that’s what’s special, and you know, I’ve had more fun playing basketball this year than I ever have had before, and that’s directly related to the 20 guys we have on this team.”
St. Thomas finishes the season with a 22-6 record, including winning the MIAC regular season championship.
“They won 104 games in four years, there aren’t many players anywhere that do that, four conference titles, a national championship, two final four appearances, and we’re gonna miss them tremendously,” Tauer said. “The emotions and sentiments that were just expressed in the locker room reflect the entire team, but particularly those four individuals that I think have been both tremendous leaders but also teammates.”
Kyle Jonas can be reached at jona7984@stthomas.edu