Saint John's travels to face Carleton for a 3 p.m. tip-off on Saturday, Jan. 17, at the West Gymnasium in Northfield. – Listen Live (WBHR-660 AM) | Live Stats | Live Video

A LOOK AT THE JOHNNIES: Saint John's (8-7, 4-2 MIAC) overcame a five-point deficit by shooting 71.1 percent (27-for-38) from the field in the second half in a 95-67 non-conference win over Minnesota-Morris earlier this week (Jan. 12) in Collegeville.

A balanced offense clicked for the Johnnies after halftime, scoring 21 points off turnovers and seven off second-chance points. Four different Johnnies did not miss a shot in the second half and two finished with double-doubles for the first time in the same game since November 2022.

UMM's largest lead of the second half was seven (44-37) 2:37 into the frame, but SJU went on a 10-2 run – capped by a traditional three-point play from junior post Vincent Hillesheim (Minneapolis, Minn./Hopkins) – to gain its first lead of the game at the 14:59 mark. While the Cougars scored on their next two possessions to tie the game at 50-50, a 15-3 Johnnie run capped by freshman guard Noah George's (Roseville, Minn./Roseville Area) third-straight three-pointer gave SJU a 65-53 lead at the 10-minute mark.

Saint John's scored 24 of the game's final 31 points from eight different players, shooting 11-for-16 with the five misses coming from beyond the arc. The Johnnies forced eight Morris turnovers in that span and kept the Cougars empty from three (0-for-5), after they started the game 2-for-2 from three-point range and went 1-for-15 from long range the rest of the way.

Junior wing Jamison Lien (Prior Lake, Minn.) led the Johnnies with 16 points on 8-for-10 shooting in 16 minutes off the bench. 

Junior guard Baiden Bean (Farmington, Minn.) made his sixth start of the season and fell two rebounds shy of a triple-double. He registered career highs in points (14), assists (12) and rebounds (8) to go with three steals and no turnovers in 34:17 played. 

Freshman guard Peyton Podany (Anoka, Minn.) posted his third double-double of the season with 10 points and 10 rebounds, while also adding five rebounds. Ten Johnnies scored five points or more and the home team shot 59.1 percent (39-for-66) from the field in the victory.

Carvin Fish led all scorers with 21 points for the Cougars, which finished at 49.1 percent (26-for-53) from the floor.

ASSISTS FOR A DOUBLE-DOUBLE: Bean's double-double was the first of points and assists by a Johnnie since All-American Aaron Burtzel's '11 second triple-double of the season – 16 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists – on Feb. 3, 2010, vs. St. Olaf.

ASSIST/TURNOVER RATIO: Bean is currently (through Jan. 15) second in NCAA Division III with a +4.57 assist/turnover ratio (64 assists to 14 turnovers). As a team, SJU is 16th nationally at +1.50.

STAT COMPARISONS (ranked by conference play)
Scoring Offense
4. SJU, 77.7 ppg. (78.3 overall)
6. CAR, 77.0 ppg. (78.2 overall)

Scoring Defense
4. CAR, 73.6 ppg. (77.3 overall)
5. SJU, 74.5 ppg. (76.1 overall)

Shooting Percentage
3. SJU, .484 (.466 overall)
5. CAR, .477 (.478 overall)

Three-Point Percentage
6. SJU, .360/54-150 (.323/139-431 overall)
7. CAR, .305/50-164 (.327/119-364 overall)

Free-Throw Percentage
3. CAR, .777/101-130 (.760/238-313 overall)
6. SJU, .732/60-82 (.670/156-233 overall)

Rebounding
t2. CAR, 37.3 rpg. (36.6 overall)
4. SJU, 36.8 rpg. (38.1 overall)

A LOOK AT THE KNIGHTS: Carleton (9-7, 5-2 MIAC) overcame an 18-point second-half deficit and rallied for a 76-74 victory Wednesday night (Jan. 14) at Hamline. Junior (6-foot-5) forward Sam Koelling scored all 16 of his points in the second half to spark the comeback and sophomore (6-foot-2) guard Josh Engelberg hit the go-ahead basket with 43 seconds left. Koelling grabbed a team-best nine rebounds and sophomore (5-foot-11) guard Matt Drake led the team with 19 points, thanks to a perfect 9-for-9 showing from the free-throw line. Drake leads the team in scoring (20.0 ppg.), three-pointers (30-for-68, .441) and steals (15). Engelberg (15.7 ppg.) and Koelling (15.3 ppg.) also average more than 15 points per contest.

LAST SEASON'S MEETINGS: The Johnnies went 3-0 against the Knights last season, including a win in the MIAC Championship game.

at Saint John's 72, Carleton 66 (Dec. 7, 2024)
Then-No. 23 SJU ended the game with an 18-8 run over the final 8:15 to defeat Carleton 72-66 last Dec. 7 (2024) in Sexton Arena. A layup from Luke Harris gave Carleton a four-point lead (58-54) with 8:16 to play before guard Zach Longueville '25 drilled a three-pointer on the other end of the court and Harris answered with another bucket with 6:45 on the clock for a 60-57 advantage. Harris finished with 32 points on 11-for-22 shooting, as well as five rebounds, two assists and two steals for the Knights.

Longueville started a 10-0 run for SJU with a layup on the ensuing possession and recorded two-consecutive steals that the home team turned into four more points. Wing Ryan Thissen '24 made his third trey of the game to give SJU a 67-60 lead with 3:11 remaining.

The Knights, however, responded with a 5-0 run capped by a three-pointer from Harris to cut Carleton's deficit to five (67-65). Thissen answered with a drive to the basket and the visitors missed their final three shot attempts of the game. A sprawling effort for an offensive rebound by wing Connor Schwob '24 led to a foul and two free throws from guard Kooper Vaughn '25 with 14 seconds left that virtually sealed the victory.

Thissen led the Johnnies with 22 points for his second-straight, 20-point game. He finished 8-for-12 from the floor, including a 3-for-4 performance from behind the arc, and grabbed eight rebounds in 35:56 played. Guard Luke Healy '25 added 12 points off the bench and Longueville chipped in 10 (eight in the second half). SJU scored 16 points off seven Carleton turnovers and the home team outscored the Knights 25-6 in bench points. Guard Blake Berg '24 scored only four points, but filled the stat sheet with a career-high seven assists, three blocks and three rebounds.

Saint John's 90, at Carleton 74 (Feb. 1, 2025)
Then-No. 12 SJU scored 25 second-chance points off 17 offensive rebounds in a 90-74 win at Carleton – the Johnnies' 13th-straight victory – on Feb. 1 (2025) in West Gymnasium. 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 Longueville 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.

Senior 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.

Post Luke Budzyn '25 was next with 16 points and eight rebounds in 18 minutes off the bench. SJU totaled a 40-14 advantage in bench points.

Berg registered 12 points, a career-high four blocks and two assists, while Vaughn posted 11 points. The game was the first for Vaughn in two weeks due to injury. Thissen was the sixth Johnnie in double digits with 10 points. He also collected eight rebounds and six assists. Schwob 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.

Harris led all scorers with 26 points for Carleton, which finished at 39 percent (23-for-59) from the field, including an even 50 percent (7-for-14) from behind the arc.

at Saint John's 74, Carleton 59 (MIAC Championship; March 1, 2025)
The Johnnies wrapped up the MIAC playoff championship with a 74-59 win over Carleton before a loud and packed house of 2,521 in Sexton Arena.

Healy, Schwob and Thissen each finished the night with 12 points. Schwob added 10 rebounds for his second career double-double and first this season. Wing Griffin Rushin '25 added 10 points to join the trio in double figures.

In all, eight Johnnies scored points and seven finished with eight or more.

The Johnnies finished 25-for-57 (43.9 percent) from the field and hit eight three-pointers. Three of those came from Vaughn, who entered the night needing just two to surpass David Stokman's school record of 266. He got the second with 7:23 to go before halftime. Vaughn's record-breaking 3-pointer was part of a 14-2 first-half run that put the Knights - the tournament's No. 4 seed - in a hole too deep to climb out of. Carleton finished the first half 6-for-23 (26.1 percent) from the field and were outrebounded 21-12 as the Johnnies took a 35-19 lead into the break.

Carleton pulled as close as 13 when Harris - who led his team with 22 points (but had only one before halftime) - hit a three-pointer with 14:38 to play. But that was as close as the Knights could get.

SERIES HISTORY: The Johnnies are 54-36 against the Knights since the 1964-65 season, but just 21-24 in West Gymnasium. SJU has won 12 of the last 16 meetings overall.