Box Score

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – No. 23 Saint John's opened the MIAC basketball schedule with a 75-60 win over St. Olaf on Wednesday, Dec. 4, in Sexton Arena.

The Johnnies (5-2, 1-0 MIAC) out-rebounded the Oles (1-8, 0-1 MIAC) by a 41-23 margin, including 10-5 on the offensive glass, which the home team turned into a 16-0 advantage in second-chance points.

STO scored a basket on its first possession of the second half to cut the Johnnies' lead to two (39-37), but SJU answered with a 13-3 run to gain its first double-digit lead of the game. The visitors battled back to within six (55-49) on a 9-3 advantage with 9:38 to play. The Johnnies responded with the game-clinching run – 10-3 – and led by as much as 17 with under a minute remaining. Senior wing Ryan Thissen (Rosemount, Minn./Eastview) accounted for eight of the 10 points over the five-minute span and finished with a season-high 27 on 11-for-19 shooting.

SJU shot 52.2 percent (12-for-23) from the field in the second half, including an even 50 percent (4-for-8) from three-point range.

The Johnnies led by as much as nine (14-5) 5:30 into the game and by seven (24-17) with 9:06 left before the break, but the Oles put together a 12-4 run to gain their first lead of the game (29-28) at the 5:25 mark. Buckets on three-straight possessions gave the visitors another one-point lead (35-34) with 2:26 remaining before SJU closed the half with a trey from senior guard Zach Longueville (Eagan, Minn./St. Croix Lutheran) and a jumper from senior guard Blake Berg (West Fargo, N.D./Sheyenne) to give the home team a 39-35 halftime lead.



Berg and senior guard Kooper Vaughn (St. Charles, Minn.) followed Thissen with 12 points apiece. Berg added eight rebounds and two blocks.

The 20-point game was the second of the season and 22nd overall for Thissen, who passed Craig Muyres '64 (1,344) and Tyler Weiss '18 (1,349) for 10th in program history with 1,358 career points. Vaughn's 12-point performance lifted him past Ryan Lieser '08 (1,057) for 35th (1,064) on the scoring list. 

Kobe Kirk led STO with 11 points on a 5-for-14 night from the floor.

SJU is now 39-11 in its last 50 MIAC openers, including a 27-3 record in Collegeville.

The Johnnies play host to Carleton (5-1, 1-0 MIAC) for a 5 p.m. tip-off this Saturday, Dec. 7, in Collegeville. The game was originally scheduled for 1 p.m. but was pushed back to a 5 p.m. start due to SJU football's NCAA playoff game at noon.