No. 21 Saint John's returns to the hardwood by hosting Hamline at 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 4, in Sexton Arena. - Listen Live (WBHR-660 AM/95.7 FM) | Live Stats | Live Video

A LOOK AT THE JOHNNIES: Saint John's (10-2, 3-0 MIAC) shot 55.2 percent from the field, including an even 50 percent (21-for-42) from three-point range, in a pair of wins Dec. 18-19 in Washington, D.C.

Saint John's 71, Marymount (Va.) 55
SJU made 13 of its first 17 shot attempts, including a 3-for-3 performance from three-point range, to build a 29-12 lead with 9:09 on the clock. A three-pointer from junior guard Kyle Johnson (Prior Lake, Minn./DeLaSalle) gave the Johnnies a 23-point lead (39-16) with 4:30 left before halftime, but Marymount closed with a 7-0 run for a 39-23 advantage at the break.

The Saints cut their deficit to as little as 13 (45-32) at the 15:08 mark of the second, but proceeded to make only one of their next nine shots as SJU went on an 18-4 run over an 8:27 span to build its largest lead of the game – 27 (63-36) – with 6:41 left to play.

Senior guard Blake Berg (West Fargo, N.D./Sheyenne) led all scorers with 17 points and added three assists in 26 minutes of play. He had 13 points on 6-for-7 shooting in the first half alone.

Johnson added 11 points, thanks to a 3-for-4 performance from behind the arc, in 17 minutes off the bench and senior guard Zach Longueville (Eagan, Minn./St. Croix Lutheran) was the third Johnnie in double digits with 10 points.

SJU finished with season highs in shooting percentage (.525), three-point percentage (.471) and blocked shots (5) in the win. The Johnnies shot 56.7 percent (17-for-30) in the first half to the Saints' 28.1 percent (9-for-32).

Marymount had three players with eight points and ended at 33.9 percent (19-for-56) for the game. The Saints collected a 35-32 edge in rebounds, including a 15-7 advantage on the offensive glass, but only mustered a 12-11 margin in second-chance points.

Saint John's 91, Rowan (N.J.) 66
The Johnnies won the Tom McKavitt Classic championship with a 91-66 victory over Rowan (N.J.) on the campus of Catholic University. The Johnnies shot 57.9 percent (33-for-57) from the field, including 61.5 percent (16-for-26) in the second half, and went 13-for-25 (52 percent) from three-point range in the victory. SJU scored points off 11 of Rowan's 12 turnovers and finished with a season-high 26.

The Profs gained their largest lead of the game – four (9-5) – 3:31 into the contest before SJU went on a 14-2 run and never looked back.

The Johnnies made five three-pointers – the first three by senior guard Kooper Vaughn (St. Charles, Minn.) and the other two by Berg – out of six possessions over a 3:21 span late in the first half to build a double-digit lead that they sustained for the remainder of the game.

Vaughn led all scorers with 24 points in 26 minutes thanks to a 7-for-12 showing from behind the arc. Berg followed Vaughn with 19 points and three assists, while senior wing Ryan Thissen (Rosemount, Minn./Eastview) totaled 10 points and tied a career high with seven assists.

Khalif Meares led Rowan, which entered the game averaging 85.4 points per game, with 19 points. The Profs shot an even 50 percent (15-for-30) in the second half to finish at 43.4 percent (23-for-53) for the game.

IN THE RECORD BOOK: Vaughn's seven made three-pointers Dec. 19 lifted him past Patrick Strom '18 (232) for second in program history with 238 in his career. Assistant coach David Stokman '19 owns the SJU record with 266. The 24 points, meanwhile, served as the 10th 20-point game of Vaughn's career and enabled him to pass John Wiehoff '84 (1,106), Joe Deignan '95 (1,113) and Matt Ohme '07 (1,121), and move into a tie with John Eisenschenk '81 for 24th on SJU's all-time scoring list with 1,129.

Thissen's 10 points moved him past Jubie Alade '20 for sixth in program history with 1,426, 54 behind Bill Sexton '55 in fifth.

STAT COMPARISONS
Scoring Offense
-HU, 75.9 ppg.
-SJU, 74.9 ppg.

Scoring Defense
-SJU, 61.8 ppg.
-HU, 69.1 ppg.

Shooting Percentage – Offense
-HU, .467
-SJU, .457

Shooting Percentage – Defense
-SJU, .388
-HU, .420

Three-Point Percentage – Offense
-SJU, .360/112-for-311
-HU, .337/64-for-190

Three-Point Percentage – Defense
-SJU, .265/59-for-223 (No. 16 in Division III)
-HU, .335/83-for-248

Free-Throw Percentage
-SJU, .812/125-for-154 (No. 2 in Division III)
-HU, .727/157-for-216

Rebounding
-SJU, 37.3 rpg.
-HU, 34.8 rpg.

Turnovers
-SJU, 9.3 tpg. (No. 6 in Division III)
-HU, 9.9 tpg. (No. 16 in Division III)

A LOOK AT THE PIPERS: Hamline (6-6, 2-1 MIAC) dropped a pair of games Dec. 29-30 at Wisconsin-Oshkosh, 70-63 to Wisconsin-La Crosse and 74-65 to the host Titans. Senior (6-foot-4) wing Bradley Cimperman leads four Pipers who average in double figures with 18.4 points and grabs 6.8 rebounds per game. Junior (6-foot-3) guard Brendan Ebel and sophomore (6-foot-0) guard Raoul Vaidya are next at 12.3 points, while senior (6-foot-6) forward Austin Holt touts 11.0 points and 9.5 rebounds per contest. Senior (6-foot-3) guard Daniel McCarrell is close behind with 9.8 points per contest and a team-best 36 assists.

LAST SEASON'S MEETINGS: For the first time since 2005, SJU lost twice to Hamline in the same season.

at Saint John's 80, Hamline 60 (Dec. 2, 2023)
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.

Vaughn led all scorers with 17 points in 16 minutes of play. He made four of his eight long-range attempts to crack SJU's all-time list with 146 career three-pointers. Berg followed with 13 points, four assists and four rebounds, while Thissen scored 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. 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.

at Hamline 74, Saint John's 73 (Jan. 20, 2024)
Ahead by one (73-72) with 8.9 seconds remaining, Berg was at the free-throw line in a one-and-one situation. The 81.6-percent (40-for-49) shooter at the charity stripe, however, missed the free throw - the Johnnies' first of the day (12-for-13) - and the Pipers grabbed the defensive rebound. Cimperman then drew a foul against Berg, his fifth of the game, with two seconds left. Cimperman made both free throws – due to the double-bonus – for the go-ahead points and SJU's last-chance heave from the opposite baseline was deflected in the air near mid-court and the clock ran out.

A deep three-pointer from Longueville gave the Johnnies a two-point lead (71-69) with 2:41 left. Holt made one of his two free-throw attempts on the ensuing possession and both teams were scoreless for over a minute before Berg made a shot in the paint to increase the visitors' lead to 73-70 at the 1:02 mark. Cimperman cut the Pipers' deficit to one with a basket on the next possession and SJU escaped a shot-clock violation when HU was whistled for a defensive foul with 10 seconds remaining (three seconds left on the shot clock). The foul, however, was just the Pipers' sixth of the half (to SJU's 10). Another whistle on the in-bounds pass sent Berg to the line.

SJU started the game with a 12-2 run, but HU answered with an 11-2 run of its own and the teams exchanged the lead seven times in the first half. The Pipers took a 41-37 lead into halftime thanks to a 59.3-percent (16-for-27) showing from the field – to the Johnnies' 48 percent (12-for-25) – and a 24-10 scoring advantage in the paint.

Thissen led four Johnnies in double figures with 19 points on just 7-for-21 shooting. Berg followed with 15 points and Vaughn totaled 11. Senior post Connor Schwob (Waconia, Minn.) filled the stat sheet with 10 points, seven rebounds, two blocks and two steals. Longueville added eight points, six boards and four assists.

Holt scored a game-high 24 points and completed the double-double with 13 rebounds. He more than doubled his season average of 23.3 percent (7-for-30) from behind the arc by going 2-for-4 on the afternoon.

HU edged SJU on the glass, 26-25, though the Johnnies scored 17 points off 12 turnovers. SJU's 13 free-throw attempts were seven below its season average and the loss was the Johnnies' first in Hutton Arena in nine years (Feb. 9, 2015).

Hamline 83, at Saint John's 80 (MIAC Semifinals; Feb. 22, 2024)
Berg finished with a career-best 28 points, including a 3-pointer to tie the score with four seconds left to play, but Cimperman hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer for the 83-80 win. Cimperman - who was 0-for-7 from 3-point range in a victory over Concordia in the quarterfinals - finished 4-for-4 from beyond the arc and 8-for-12 overall for 26 points. 

The Pipers shot 30-for-53 (56.6 percent) as a team, the best percentage for an opponent against the Johnnies since a non-conference loss to Wisconsin-Oshkosh on Nov. 12, 2021; a span of 78 games. Hamline finished 8-for-15 from 3-point range - a season-best 53.3 percent.

The Johnnies led by as much as six in the first half, but a layup by Jake Veldman with 23 seconds to go tied the score 41-41 at halftime. SJU built its lead back to five - 46-41 - when Berg hit a layup and free throw with 18:38 to go. 

From there, though, the Pipers seized the momentum - going up by as much as nine twice, including at 72-63 on a jumper by Mick Wherley with 4:31 remaining.

At that point, no SJU player besides Berg had scored in double figures. But Thissen came on strong down the stretch, scoring 10 of his 19 points in the final 4:13 of play - including eight-straight capped by a 3-pointer that cut the gap to 74-68 with 3:34 still on the clock.

The Johnnies continued to chip away from there, finally tying the score when Berg - who finished 2-for-3 from beyond the arc - connected for three with four seconds to go.

But it was Cimperman who hit the night's final shot, draining his 3-pointer as the buzzer sounded to send HU to the championship game. 

SJU entered play Thursday ranked No. 1 in the nation in Division III in overall shooting percentage (.516) and 3-point shooting percentage (.414). Against the Pipers, the Johnnies finished 30-for-57 (52.6 percent) from the field, but 7-for-23 (30.4 percent) from behind the three-point arc. Hamline finished with 13 points off turnovers to SJU's two.

SERIES HISTORY: The Johnnies are 96-29 against the Pipers since the 1964-65 season, including a 54-10 record in Collegeville. SJU has won 17 of the last 20 meetings overall, including 18 of the last 20 in Sexton Arena.