Box Score
DULUTH, Minn. – Saint John's shot 54.7 percent (29-for-53) from the field and scored 34 points off 23 St. Scholastica turnovers in an 85-55 win on Saturday, Jan. 6.
The Johnnies (10-3, 8-0 MIAC) shot 60.9 percent (14-for-23) in the second half, including 54.5 percent (6-for-11) from three-point range, and led by as much as 34 (74-40) with 9:37 remaining. Nine Johnnies scored five points or more in the victory.
SJU broke a 27-27 tie by closing the first half with a 15-6 run over the final 4:26 to take a 42-33 lead into halftime. The visitors burst out of the locker room with a 13-3 run and never looked back.
Junior guard
Kooper Vaughn (St. Charles, Minn.) led three Johnnies in double digits with 12 points. He went 2-for-3 from long range and is now tied with Seth Marx '14 for sixth in SJU history with 165 career three-pointers.
Senior guard
Blake Berg (West Fargo, N.D./Sheyenne) and sophomore guard
Kyle Johnson (Prior Lake, Minn./DeLaSalle) followed with 11 points apiece.
Junior wing
Griffin Rushin (Baxter, Minn./Brainerd) provided a spark in the first half with nine points on a perfect 3-for-3 showing from behind the arc, while junior post
Luke Budzyn (St. Paul, Minn./East Ridge) made his first appearance since Nov. 21 due to injury and totaled nine points in the second half.
A pair of guards, senior
Brandon Adelman (New London, Minn./New London-Spicer) and junior
Luke Healy (Hudson, Wis.), collected eight points and two steals each.
Senior wing
Ryan Thissen (Rosemount, Minn./Eastview) recorded seven points, which enabled him to break his tie with Andy Burns '12 (1,068) and move past Larry Bassett '92 (1,072) into 31st on SJU's all-time scoring list with 1,075 points. Tim Muller '71 (1,079) is 30th and Eric Kohorst '93 (1,080) is 29th.
Noah Winesett led CSS (2-10, 1-6 MIAC) with 13 points in 13 minutes played. The Saints shot 33.3 percent (9-for-27) in the second half and finished at 39.3 percent (22-for-56) for the game.
The 23 turnovers were the most committed against SJU since Dec. 15, 2011 (23 in a 73-58 win at Minnesota-Morris) and the 34 points off turnovers were the most for the Johnnies since Jan. 17, 2009 (37 points off 22 miscues in an 81-54 home victory over Hamline).
The Johnnies complete their three-game stretch of road games with a 7 p.m. tip-off at Bethel (7-5, 4-3 MIAC) – which defeated Gustavus Adolphus 80-71 in overtime today in St. Peter – on Wednesday, Jan. 10, in Arden Hills.
