Saint John's (8-9, 4-8 MIAC) travels to face Bethel (3-10, 6-12 MIAC) for a 7:30 p.m. tip-off tonight at the Robertson Center in Arden Hills. – Listen Live | Live Stats/Live Video

A LOOK AT THE JOHNNIES: St. Olaf shot 58.3 percent in the first half and made 10 three-pointers in the game to defeat Saint John's 70-55 this past Saturday in Northfield. The Oles (12-6, 7-6 MIAC) missed five of their first seven shots, but went 12-for-17 from the floor to take a five-point lead into halftime. Conversely, SJU (8-9, 4-8 MIAC) made its first five shots of the game, and six of its first 10, to jump out to a nine-point lead six minutes into the contest. STO made its final six three-point attempts of the opening half after going 0-for-3 in the first seven minutes. Senior Todd Herman (Spicer, Minn./New London-Spicer) led SJU with 12 points, while senior Nermin Hujdurovic (Tuzla, Bosnia/Medical) and junior Aaron Barmore (Bloomington, Minn./Jefferson) collected 11 and 10 points, respectively. Senior Aaron Burtzel (Cold Spring, Minn./Rocori) tallied eight points and 10 rebounds. St. Olaf held a 33-8 scoring advantage off the bench. The fouls were 17-7 in favor of SJU, as the Johnnies attempted only four free throws in the game. The visitors missed a total of eight layups (shots in the paint) in the game.

A LOOK AT THE ROYALS: Bethel's two-game winning streak ended as No. 8 St. Thomas defeated the Royals 82-72, despite outshooting the Tommies in the second half. Taylor Hall led the Royals with 16 points and 10 rebounds, while Greg Meyer and Christian Skinner scored 15 and 10 points, respectively. Hall leads the team with an average of 16.4 points per game, which is fourth in the MIAC, as well as assists (39), steals (30), blocked shots (16) and minutes per game (30.4).

SERIES HISTORY: Saint John's is 48-22 all-time against the Royals under the direction of head coach Jim Smith, but just 18-14 in Arden Hills. The Johnnies have won nine of the last 13 meetings overall, and each of the last three played in Arden Hills.

EARLIER THIS SEASON: The Johnnies erased a 16-point deficit in the second half to defeat Bethel 69-65 Dec. 8 in Collegeville. SJU shot a dreary 28.6 percent (6-21) in the first half and headed into halftime with a 33-20 deficit. The Johnnies went 9:15 between field goals (0-for-7 from the field with four turnovers), both of which were layups by Barmore. The home team turned it on in the second half, shooting 53.3 percent (16-30) from the floor to outscore Bethel 49-32 in the game's final 20 minutes. Bethel led by 11 points with 12:04 left in the game and proceeded to miss eight consecutive shots and commit a turnover, which allowed the Johnnies to gain a one-point lead. Christian Skinner ended the scoring drought for the Royals to put them ahead by one. Senior Sam Blank (Rollingstone, Minn./Winona Cotter) made a three-pointer to put SJU up by two, but Daniel Baah answered back with a three-pointer of his own. Bethel, however, missed its next three shots and Saint John's went up by five. The Royals gained the lead one more time on a three-pointer by Greg Meyer, but that would be the end of their scoring, as they missed their next four shots. Bethel turned the ball over with 0:42 left in the contest and Blank completed a three-point play to put the Johnnies up by four. A desperation three-pointer with 0:03 left fell short to end the game. Burtzel led the Johnnies with 20 points, 14 rebounds and six assists to post his second consecutive double-double. He tallied 15 points on five of six shooting in the second half alone. Blank followed with 13 points, while senior Chris Schwartz (Sioux Falls, S.D./Lincoln) and Barmore recorded 11 and 10 points, respectively. Hujdurovic added 12 points and eight rebounds in 14 minutes off the bench. Baah led all scorers with 26 points for the Royals.

RECORD BOOK WATCH: Burtzel needs four assists to reach 368 for his career and pass assistant coach Matt Ohme (2003-07) for the school record. He needs 32 points to pass four former Johnnies into 25th on the school's all-time scoring list: Steve Ward (1,042; 1971-75), Mark Lenss (1,044; 1974-78), Ryan Lieser (1,057; 2003-2007) and Kevin Coleman (1,065; 1968-1972). Fellow senior Chris Schwartz currently has 915 career points.