Saint John's basketball wraps up its three-game homestand with a 7 p.m. tip-off tonight against Augsburg in Sexton Arena. – Listen Live (WBHR-660 AM) | Live Stats | Live Video

A LOOK AT THE JOHNNIES: Saint John's (4-2, 3-0 MIAC) won its fourth-straight game with a convincing 80-60 victory over Hamline this past Saturday (Dec. 2) in Collegeville. SJU scored the game's first eight points and rode a 19-2 run to take a 44-20 lead at halftime. The home team shot 55.9 percent (19-for-34) from the field in the first 20 minutes and held Hamline to 26.7 percent (8-for-30), including 0-for-4 from behind the arc.
 
The Johnnies opened the second half with a 10-2 run and never looked back. SJU led by as much as 36 (67-31) with 10:03 remaining.
 
Junior guard Kooper Vaughn (St. Charles, Minn.) led all scorers with 17 points in 16 minutes of play. Senior guard Blake Berg (West Fargo, N.D./Sheyenne) followed with 13 points, four assists and four rebounds, while sophomore guard Chris Mitchell (Green Bay, Wis./Notre Dame Academy) added a career-high 11 points off the bench. Senior wing Ryan Thissen (Rosemount, Minn./Eastview) was the fourth Johnnie in double digits with 10 points. He also totaled five rebounds and three assists.
 
Twelve Johnnies scored a basket in the victory. SJU out-rebounded HU 42-29 and scored 16 fast-break points.

Sam Hoffman led the Pipers, who finished at 40 percent (24-for-60) from the floor thanks to a 53.3-percent showing (16-for-30) in the second half. Austin Holt collected 13 points and 11 rebounds – eight points and nine boards in the second half – and Raoul Vaidya added 13 points off the bench. Bradley Cimperman, who entered the game averaging 27.5 points per game, finished with a career-low four on 1-for-8 shooting in 19 minutes.

SOLID WEEK: The Johnnies opened their home schedule with a pair of routs – 90-64 vs. Saint Mary's (Wednesday) and 80-60 vs. Hamline (Saturday) – last week. SJU led by 30 points or more in both games and combined to shoot 58.2 percent from the field, including 45.5 percent (20-for-44) from three-point range. Fifteen Johnnies saw the court in both games (17 played overall) and junior guard Zach Longueville (Eagan, Minn./St. Croix Lutheran) led the team with an average of 22.0 minutes played.

KOOP AT NO. 10: Vaughn made four of his eight long-range attempts to crack SJU's all-time list with 146 career three-pointers. He is four behind Alex Schmitt '16 in ninth, despite playing 38 fewer games.
 
Most Three-Pointers in SJU History
1. 266 - David Stokman (109 games) - 2015-19
2. 232 - Patrick Strom (108 games) - 2014-18
3. 180 - Larry Bassett (80 games) - 1988-92
4. 172 - Joe Deignan (105 games) - 1991-95
5. 168 - Oakley Baker (91 games) - 2017-21
6. 165 - Seth Marx (81 games) - 2010-14
7. 161 - Chris Schwartz (99 games) - 2007-11
8. 160 - Andy Burns (104 games) - 2008-12
9. 150 - Alex Schmitt (97 games) - 2012-16
10. 146 - Kooper Vaughn (59 games) - 2021-current

29 POINTS FROM 1,000: Thissen needs 29 points to become the 40th Johnnie in program history to reach 1,000 for a career.

STAT COMPARISONS
Scoring Offense
-AUG, 79.8 ppg.
-SJU, 78.0 ppg.

Scoring Defense
-SJU, 70.3 ppg.
-AUG, 87.2 ppg. 

Shooting Percentage
-SJU, .488 (165-338)
-AUG, .458 (170-371)

Three-Point Percentage
-SJU, .383 (49-128)
-AUG, .315 (34-108)

Free-Throw Percentage
-SJU, .824 (89-108)
-AUG, .695 (105-151)

Rebounding
-AUG, 38.3 rpg.
-SJU, 34.5 rpg.

A LOOK AT THE AUGGIES: Augsburg (3-3, 1-2 MIAC) saw its two-game win streak end with a 93-61 loss at home to Gustavus Adolphus on Saturday (Dec. 2). Senior (6-foot-5) forward Colin Meade led the Auggies with 18 points on an efficient 8 of 13 shooting. Junior (6-foot-0) guard Jalen Dearring was the other Auggie in double digits with 10 points on 3 of 9 from the field, including Augsburg's lone three-point make of the game (1-for-13). Junior (6-foot-4) guard Will Blascziek leads the team with an average of 17.2 points per game, while Meade averages 13.2 and has a team-best .565 shooting percentage (26-46).

LAST SEASON'S MEETINGS: The two teams split the 2022-23 season series with home wins. 

at Saint John's 78, Augsburg 50 – Dec. 3, 2022
SJU collected 27 assists on 35 made field goals and shot 59.3 percent (35-for-59) from the floor in the home victory. The Johnnies broke open a one-point lead (11-10) with 12:31 left in the opening half with a 24-5 run and never looked back. SJU led 41-22 at the break and opened the second half with nine straight points. 

SJU scored 20 points off 13 Augsburg turnovers and led by as much as 34. The home team outrebounded the Auggies 31-25 and posted a 54-24 scoring advantage in the paint.

Thissen led all scorers with 24 points, on 11 of 18 shooting, and was in contention for a triple-double with a game-high eight rebounds and a career-best seven assists in 26:28 played.

Junior wing Griffin Rushin (Baxter, Minn./Brainerd) followed with a career-high 13 points off the bench, including back-to-back three-pointers in the Johnnies' large, first-half run. Post Mitchell Plombon '23 was the other Johnnie in double figures with 12 points. 

Bradley Winter led AUG, which shot 37.5 percent (18-for-48) from the field, with 11 points.

The 28-point victory was the largest winning differential for SJU over Augsburg since Jan. 27, 1969 (a 104-76 victory in Collegeville). The Johnnies defeated Augsburg by 30 points or more a week apart – Jan. 20 (54-20) in Minneapolis and Jan. 27 (58-23) in Collegeville – in 1945.

at Augsburg 75, Saint John's 66 – Jan. 21, 2023
The Johnnies made half of their shots but committed 22 turnovers in the nine-point loss at Augsburg. SJU entered the game fifth in the MIAC with an average of 10.5 turnovers per game in conference play. To make matters worse, Augsburg scored 20 points off the miscues and shot eight percentage points better than its season averages from the field (.409) and from the free-throw line (.668).
 
The Johnnies made eight of their first 12 shots and finished at 60 percent (12-for-20) from the field – to the Auggies' 40.7 percent (11-for-27) – in the first half but trailed 34-28 because of 12 turnovers. The Auggies entered the game shooting 30.4 percent from three-point range and went 4-for-6, as well as a perfect 8-for-8 from the charity stripe, in the first half. The 12 first-half turnovers and 22 overall were the most for SJU since Nov. 16, 2018, at Wisconsin-Whitewater (14 in the first half, 22 overall).
 
The visitors cut their deficit to two (45-43) with 14:12 to play, but AUG answered with an 8-0 run. SJU came to within six on three occasions, the last with 1:52 remaining, but the Auggies scored four-straight points to clinch the win.
 
Plombon posted 18 points and eight rebounds, while Vaughn tallied 15 in the second half to match him with 18. Thissen was the other Johnnie in double figures with 11.
 
Conner Knoepfle led Augsburg, which finished at 48.1 percent (25-for-52) from the floor and 75 percent (21-for-28) from the free-throw line, with 25 points. A 65.5-percent shooter from the line, Knoepfle made 12 of his 13 free-throw attempts and scored 17 points in the second half.
 
SJU outrebounded AUG 30-26 and both teams grabbed 10 offensive boards. The Auggies, however, posted a 14-5 advantage in second-chance points.

SERIES HISTORY: The Johnnies are 67-60 against the Auggies since 1964-65, including a 33-15 record in Collegeville. SJU has won 16 of the last 20 meetings overall and nine of the last 11 in Sexton Arena.