Box Score

ARDEN HILLS, Minn. - Saint John's basketball suffered a heart-breaking 79-75 loss at Bethel in the MIAC Playoff Championship game on Saturday, Feb. 25, in Arden Hills.

Tied at 72-72, SJU (19-9, 13-7 MIAC) was called for a shot-clock violation with 45.3 seconds remaining when junior wing John Oliver's (Chicago, Ill.) layup didn't hit the rim. Oliver looked to have stripped the Royals' Bridgeport Tusler on the other end of the court, but was called for the foul. Tusler made both free throws to give BU (21-6, 15-5 MIAC) a two-point lead (74-72), but sophomore guard David Stokman (Maple Lake, Minn.) answered with a traditional three-point play to give the lead back to the Johnnies, 75-74, with 21.8 seconds left. 

Trevor Hall's layup made it 76-75 in favor of the Royals with 10.7 seconds remaining. Stokman went to the floor and lost the ball on the other end, and Tusler brought it back the other way en route to a flagrant foul on SJU. Tusler made three of his four free throws in the game's final two seconds to seal the win and earn the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament.

The NCAA selection show is at 11:30 a.m. Monday, Feb. 27, on www.ncaa.com. SJU hopes it will earn one of the 21 at-large bids to the 64-team tournament.

Stokman led all scorers with 33 points, his 11th 20-point game of the season (fifth over 30 points), on 10 of 20 shooting (3-for-9 from three-point) and a perfect 10-for-10 performance from the free-throw line. He also added five rebounds and four assists.

Junior post Tyler Weiss (Shakopee, Minn.) collected 13 points and 11 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season. Junior guard Garrett Goetz (Rosemount, Minn.), fresh off his game-winning shot in Thursday's MIAC Semifinal win at St. Thomas, poured in 11 points on 3 of 4 shooting from behind the arc. Junior guard Patrick Strom (Fargo, N.D./Shanley) was the fourth Johnnies in double figures with 10 points.

Tusler led BU, which scored 22 points off the 14 SJU turnovers, with 26 points. Brycen Wojta added 16 points, 13 of which came in the first half.

SJU made 10 of its first 16 shots during a 26-14 run to start the second half to gain a 56-48 lead with 11:28 left. The Johnnies led by nine (59-50) at the 9:45 mark, but BU went on an 11-2 run to tie it with 7:07 showing on the clock. The game's margin did not exceed two points until Tusler's free throws at the end of the game. 

The Johnnies out-shot (50.0 percent to 47.5 percent) and out-rebounded (32-28) BU in the loss.