No. 9 Saint John's basketball ends its string of four-straight road games with a 7:30 p.m. contest at St. Scholastica on Wednesday, Feb. 5, in Duluth. - Listen Live (WBHR-660 AM/95.7 FM) | Live Stats | Live Video

A LOOK AT THE JOHNNIES: Saint John's (17-2, 10-0 MIAC) scored 25 second-chance points off 17 offensive rebounds in a 90-74 win at Carleton – the Johnnies' 13th-straight victory – on Saturday (Feb. 1) in Northfield. SJU out-rebounded Carleton by a 49-26 margin overall and six Johnnies scored 10 points or more in the win.

The Johnnies broke a 29-29 stalemate with a 20-10 run over the final 6:14 of the first half, including a trio of three-pointers from senior guard Zach Longueville (Eagan, Minn./St. Croix Lutheran) under the three-minute mark, for a 49-39 halftime lead. Longueville led the visitors with 15 points on a 5-for-8 showing from three-point in the first half, a stat line that held as he played only two minutes after the break due to foul trouble.

The Knights cut the deficit to six on three occasions in the second half, the last coming with 11:42 remaining. The visitors, however, answered the last with a 15-3 scoring advantage and led by as much as 20 (85-65) with 4:37 left.

Junior guard Kyle Johnson (Prior Lake, Minn./DeLaSalle) led SJU with 17 points in 22 minutes off the bench. He sparked the late 15-3 run with six-straight points.

Senior post Luke Budzyn (St. Paul, Minn./East Ridge) was next with 16 points and eight rebounds in 18 minutes off the bench. SJU totaled a 40-14 advantage in bench points.

Senior guard Blake Berg (West Fargo, N.D./Sheyenne) registered 12 points, a career-high four blocks and two assists, while senior guard Kooper Vaughn (St. Charles, Minn.) posted 11 points. The game was the first for Vaughn in two weeks due to injury.

Senior wing Ryan Thissen (Rosemount, Minn./Eastview) was the sixth Johnnie in double digits with 10 points. He also collected eight rebounds and six assists.

Senior post Connor Schwob (Waconia, Minn.) cleaned the glass with 14 rebounds, the most by a Johnnie since Nov. 22, 2022 (16 by Carson Schoeller '23 at Gustavus Adolphus), including 12 in the first half alone.

NEW POLL, FIRST NPI: SJU climbed to No. 9 in the latest D3hoops.com Top 25 poll and debuted at No. 17 in the first NCAA National Power Index (NPI) for Division III men's basketball posted yesterday (Feb. 3). The NPI is the NCAA's new system for selecting and seeding teams for the NCAA Tournament. Three teams from NCAA's Region 9 were ranked in D3hoops.com's top 25: Wisconsin-Platteville (No. 4), Wisconsin-La Crosse (No. 6) and SJU (No. 9). Gustavus Adolphus and Nebraska Wesleyan received votes.

IN THE NCAA STATS: SJU currently (through games of Feb. 3) leads all of NCAA Division III in free-throw percentage (.802), is fourth in assist/turnover ratio (+1.69), fifth in fewest turnovers per game (9.2), 11th in both scoring margin (+15.5 ppg.) and shooting percentage (.488), and 14th in both three-point percentage (.388) and three-point defense (.278), and 16th in scoring defense (63.0 ppg.).

IN THE RECORD BOOK: Thissen is fourth in program history with 1,536 points, 32 behind Troy Bigalke '01 in third with 1,568. Vaughn is 18th on the scoring list with 1,180 career points, 37 behind Tom Grudnowski '72 in 17th (1,217). He is also second in school history with 251 career three-pointers, 15 behind the record of 266 owned by David Stokman '19, and is also second in free-throw percentage (.892/247-for-277).

STAT COMPARISONS: The Johnnies currently lead the MIAC in seven of the nine major statistical categories in conference play and are second in the other two.

Scoring Offense
2. SJU, 81.5 ppg. (78.5 overall)
7. CSS, 70.8 ppg. (74.0 overall)

Scoring Defense
1. SJU, 64.3 ppg. (63.0 overall)
11. CSS, 82.1 ppg. (80.3 overall)

Shooting Percentage – Offense
1. SJU, 52.8 percent (48.8 percent overall)
9. CSS, 43.1 percent (43.6 percent overall)

Shooting Percentage – Defense
1. SJU, 40.6 percent (39.1 percent overall)
10. CSS, 49.3 percent (47.6 percent overall)

Three-Point Percentage – Offense
1. SJU, 41.7 percent/95-228 (38.8 percent/176-454 overall)
7. CSS, 35.8 percent/93-260 (34.7 percent/166-479 overall)

Three-Point Percentage – Defense
1. SJU, 30.6 percent/59-193 (27.8 percent/102-367 overall)
9. CSS, 38.4 percent/94-245 (38.0 percent/169-445 overall)

Free-Throw Percentage
1. SJU, 78.0 percent/96-123 (80.2 percent/198-247 overall)
10. CSS, 62.3 percent/96-154 (64.9 percent/205-316 overall)

Rebounding
2. SJU, 36.9 rpg. (37.3 overall)
6. CSS, 33.5 rpg. (33.9 overall)

Fewest Turnovers
1. SJU, 9.5 tpg. (9.2 overall)
11. CSS, 14.2 tpg. (13.7 overall)

A LOOK AT THE SAINTS: St. Scholastica (7-13, 3-8 MIAC) suffered its third-straight loss with a narrow 79-76 defeat on Saturday (Feb. 1) at Macalester. Sophomore (6-foot-6) forward Aaron Keykal fell a rebound shy of a double-double with 23 points and nine boards. Junior (5-foot-10) guard Koy Nelson leads the team in scoring with 13.3 points per game, while Keykal is next at 12.6 points and a team-best 8.5 rebounds per contest. Keykal also touts a .653 shooting percentage.

TWO WEEKS AGO: SJU cruised to its 10th-straight win, 97-68 over St. Scholastica, back on Jan 18 in Sexton Arena. The Johnnies shot 66.7 percent (18-for-27) in the first half, including a 5-for-10 performance from behind the arc, for a 49-33 halftime lead.  SJU out-scored St. Scholastica 65-15 in bench points and 12 different Johnnies scored a basket or more. The home team led by as much as 34 (93-59) with 3:40 to play.

Johnson led five Johnnies in double figures with 18 points off the bench. He finished 7-for-14 from the floor (4-for-8 from three-point) to go along with four assists and two steals.

Senior guard Luke Healy (Hudson, Wis.) and senior wing Griffin Rushin (Baxter, Minn./Brainerd) followed with 14 points apiece. Healy led SJU with 25:23 played and chipped in four rebounds and three assists with a perfect 6-for-6 showing at the free-throw line. Rushin, meanwhile, totaled two thunderous dunks, four boards, two assists, one block, one steal and finished 6-for-8 from the field.

Thissen posted SJU's first double-double of the season, and third of his career, with 13 points and 10 rebounds in 21 minutes of action. Thissen went 3-for-4 from three-point land and added two assists and two steals. The double-double was Thissen's first since Nov. 16, 2022 (15 points and 11 rebounds vs. Buena Vista, Iowa).

Budzyn was the fifth Johnnie in double digits with 10 points.

Nelson led all scorers with 30 points in 31:31 of play for CSS, which shot 42.9 percent (12-for-28) in each half. 

The Johnnies out-scored the Saints 14-5 off turnovers and 13-2 in second-chance points.

SERIES HISTORY: SJU is 14-0 all-time against St. Scholastica on the basketball court, including a 3-0 record in Duluth.