Saint John's basketball ends its three-game road stretch with a 7 p.m. tip-off at Bethel on Wednesday, Jan. 10, in Arden Hills. – Listen Live (WBHR-660 AM) | Live Stats | Live Video

A LOOK AT THE JOHNNIES: Saint John's (10-3, 8-0 MIAC) shot 54.7 percent (29-for-53) from the field and scored 34 points off 23 St. Scholastica turnovers in an 85-55 win this past Saturday (Jan. 6) in Duluth.

The Johnnies 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, while 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. 

Noah Winesett led CSS 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.

TURNOVERS & POINTS: The Saints' 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 scored 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).

STILL PERFECT: The Johnnies are now 12-0 all-time against St. Scholastica on the hardwood. Saturday's trek to Duluth was just the third meeting between the two teams on the Saints' home court.

UP TO 31ST: 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.

TIED WITH MARX: Vaughn 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. Oakley Baker '21 is fifth (168) and Joe Deignan '95 is fourth (172).

STAT COMPARISONS: SJU leads the MIAC in five of the six major statistical categories in MIAC play so far this season (see below). The lone outlier is rebounding, which Bethel owns at 37.9 per game. Wednesday's showdown features the conference's top-two scoring defenses. Nationally, the Johnnies are third in NCAA Division III in free-throw percentage (.802), fifth in overall shooting percentage (.505), 11th in three-point percentage (.392) and 12th in fewest turnovers per game (10.5). Individually, Vaughn is fifth nationally from three-point range (.500/36-for-72) and 10th from the free-throw line (.922/47-for-51).

Scoring Offense
1. SJU, 88.5 ppg. (83.7 overall)
t8. BU, 70.1 ppg. (73.0 overall)

Scoring Defense
1. SJU, 66.0 ppg. (69.9 overall)
2. BU, 66.6 ppg. (70.2 overall)

Shooting Percentage
1. SJU, .549 (.505 overall *No. 5 in Division III)
9. BU, .443 (.476 overall)

Three-Point Percentage
1. SJU, .444 (.392 overall *No. 11 in Division III)
5. BU, .351 (.366 overall)

Free-Throw Percentage
1. SJU, .769 (.802 overall *No. 3 in Division III)
8. BU, .697 (.639 overall)

Rebounding
1. BU, 37.9 rpg. (36.2 overall)
5. SJU, 34.0 rpg. (34.2 overall)

A LOOK AT THE ROYALS: Bethel (7-5, 4-3 MIAC) returned to the win column last Saturday (Jan. 6) with an 80-71 win in overtime at Gustavus Adolphus for the Gusties' first MIAC loss. Freshman (6-foot-5) guard Ben Burke led all scorers with a career-high 28 points, including a 6-for-10 showing behind the three-point arc. Senior (6-foot-7) forward Zach Doely added 20 points and five rebounds, while sophomore (6-foot-2) guard Payton Thomsen was the third Royal in double figures with 10 points. Doely and Thomsen lead the Royals in scoring with an average of 16.6 points per game this season. Doely is seventh in Division lll in field goal percentage (.650) and is averaging 9.7 rebounds per game, while Thomsen is shooting 46.3 percent from beyond the arc, good for 14th in Division lll. Burke averages 12.1 points per contest.

LAST SEASON: The Johnnies swept last season's series.

at Saint John's 83, Bethel 69 – Jan. 14, 2023
SJU shot 62.7 percent (37-for-59) from the field, including a blistering 67.7 percent (21-for-31) in the second half, in an 83-69 victory over Bethel last January in Sexton Arena. The home team scored 64 of its 83 points in the paint – a 64-34 margin - and 11 Johnnies registered a point in the win.

The Royals made their first four shots of the game to gain a quick 10-5 lead, but made 38.5 percent (10-for-26) the rest of the period. BU kept it close, however, despite SJU's .571 shooting percentage (16-for-28) in the first half. The visitors held slim scoring margins off turnovers (5-2) and second-chance points (3-0), and Joey Kidder drained a three-pointer just before the shot clock expired to cut the deficit to 34-33 at the break. Kidder ended the first half with 15 points and led BU with 21 for the game.

The Johnnies opened the second half with a 7-1 run and built a double-digit lead for good with a 9-0 advantage halfway through the frame.

Post Mitchell Plombon '22 led all scorers with 22 points and fell one rebound shy of his third-straight double-double. Fourteen of his 22 points came in the second half. The 20-point game was his second-consecutive, third of the season and fourth of his career.

Berg added 14 points, including 11 after halftime, and five assists, while Thissen returned to the lineup after missing the first two games of 2023 due to illness and tallied 14 points and five boards.

Post Carson Schoeller '23 also returned to the court after sitting out the previous game – an overtime win over Concordia – and posted eight points in 13 minutes off the bench. 

The Johnnies totaled 20 assists on the 37 made field goals, led by junior guard Zach Longueville's (Eagan, Minn./St. Croix Lutheran) six. 

Saint John's 81, at Bethel 52 – Feb. 18, 2023
The Johnnies secured the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye in last year's MIAC Playoffs with an 81-52 win at Bethel in the regular-season finale.

Down by one (18-17) with 13:12 left in the first half, SJU broke the game open with an impressive 27-4 run over a 10-minute span to double up the Royals, 44-22. The visitors went 11-for-16 from the field, including 5-for-6 from three-point range, during the long scoring run.

SJU shot 62.1 percent (18-for-29) from the floor, with an 8-for-11 (72.7 percent) showing from behind the arc, to take a 45-26 lead into halftime. The percentages cooled off after the break, finishing at 51.6 percent (32-for-62) overall and 45 percent (9-for-20) from long range, though the closest BU came to SJU was 16 points the rest of the way.

Vaughn led all scorers with 23 points, his second 20-point game of the season and fifth of his career. He scored eight of SJU's first 10 points and finished 7-for-8 from the field, including 6-for-7 from three-point, for 20 points in the first half alone. He also added four rebounds and three assists.

Thissen totaled 13 points, four rebounds and three assists, while Plombon added 11 points and four boards in 17 minutes of play.

Tommy Jensen led BU, which finished at 35.6 percent (21-for-59) overall and 30 percent (6-for-20) from downtown, with 16 points on 5-for-14 shooting.

SERIES HISTORY: SJU is 65-30 against BU since the 1964-65 season, but just 23-21 in Arden Hills (4-7 in the last 11 visits). The Johnnies have won 13 of the last 18 meetings overall.