Saint John's basketball hosts Augsburg for Senior Day and the regular-season finale at 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 21, in Sexton Arena. – Listen Live (WBHR-660 AM) | Live Stats | Live Video

A LOOK AT THE JOHNNIES: Saint John's (14-10, 10-5 MIAC) clinched its 14th-straight berth to the MIAC Playoffs with a 74-72 win at Hamline last Saturday (Feb. 14) in St. Paul. The Johnnies shot 56.3 percent (18-for-32) from the field for a 43-38 halftime lead but slipped to 34.5 percent (10-for-29), including seven missed layups/shots in the paint in the final 10 minutes of play.

SJU went on a 7-1 run to gain its largest lead of the game – 11 points (65-54) – with 8:21 remaining. The Pipers, however, answered with a 14-5 advantage to cut the margin to two (70-68) with 3:32 left. A layup from HU's Ethan Wall-Atim made it a 1-point game (73-72) with 1:15 on the clock and junior post Vincent Hillesheim (Minneapolis, Minn./Hopkins) made the front end of a one-and-one on the other end for what proved to be the game's final points.

The home team had the ball, following a timeout, with 13 seconds left but Raoul Vaidya's game-winning three-point attempt was off the mark.

Freshman guard Peyton Podany (Anoka, Minn.) led all scorers with 17 points and Hillesheim followed with 15 points, including 12 in the first half, and five rebounds.

Junior guard Baiden Bean (Farmington, Minn.) and freshman guard Henry Tschetter (Stewartville, Minn.) were next with 10 points apiece. Bean also collected six assists, four rebounds and two steals, while Tschetter grabbed a team-best six boards.

Dominic Dosmann led HU with 14 points on 6 of 7 shooting. The Pipers outshot the Johnnies 48.3 percent to 45.9 percent overall and posted a 39-28 advantage on the glass. SJU, however, tallied 10 points off 11 turnovers and nine second-chance points following seven offensive rebounds. Hamline finished 1-for-10 from three-point range to SJU's 5-for-18 showing.

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK: Podany was named the MIAC Men's Basketball Offensive Player of the Week for the first time of his career on Monday (Feb. 16). He averaged 25.5 points, 6.0 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 2.0 steals in 29.5 minutes per game with a .567 shooting percentage (17-for-30), including a 6-for-13 showing (46.2 percent) from three-point range, as SJU posted two road wins in St. Paul. He also went 11 of 12 from the free-throw line. 

He went toe-to-toe with the MIAC's leading scorer, Noah Shannon, by scoring a career-high 34 points on 12 of 18 shooting (4-for-7 from three-point) and fell one rebound shy of a double-double with nine in Wednesday's 89-81 win at Macalester. He also added three assists and three steals in 35 minutes of action. Podany followed that with a game-high 17 points in Saturday's 74-72 victory at Hamline.

SENIOR DAY: SJU honors its lone senior on the roster – guard Thomas Menk (Lewiston, Minn./Lewiston-Altura) – prior to Saturday's regular-season finale. The Johnnies tout an 84-24 record (58-9 MIAC) with two MIAC regular-season championships, an MIAC playoff title and an NCAA appearance during his four-year career.

NEXT WEEK'S MIAC PLAYOFFS: The 2026 MIAC playoff appearance is the program's 32nd since the postseason tournament began in 1984-85 and the 14th-consecutive. The Johnnies are 31-22 in MIAC Playoff games, including a 21-8 record in Collegeville.

STAT COMPARISONS (ranked by conference play) 
Scoring Offense 
2. AUG, 83.5 ppg. (80.9 overall)
4. SJU, 78.0 ppg. (78.3 overall)

Scoring Defense 
3. SJU, 71.5 ppg. (73.6 overall)
6. AUG, 75.0 ppg. (74.7 overall)

Shooting Percentage 
1. AUG, .487 (.476 overall)
4. SJU, .479 (.470 overall)

Shooting Percentage – Defense 
5. AUG, .454 (.450 overall)
6. SJU, .458 (.448 overall)
 
Three-Point Percentage 
2. AUG, .398/143-359 (.369/205-555 overall)
6. SJU, .354/139-393 (.332/224-674 overall)

Three-Point Percentage – Defense 
2. AUG, .319/116-364 (.320/184-575 overall)
5. SJU, .332/87-262 (.333/155-466 overall)

Free-Throw Percentage 
5. AUG, .734/204-278 (.699/337-482 overall)
8. SJU, .716/149-208 (.682/245-359 overall)

Free-Throw Percentage – Defense 
7. SJU, .735/208-283 (.747/364-387 overall)
11. AUG, .770/181-235 (.752/285-379 overall)

Rebounding 
3. SJU, 35.9 rpg. (37.0 overall)
9. AUG, 33.5 rpg. (33.1 overall)

A LOOK AT THE AUGGIES: Augsburg (16-8, 9-6 MIAC) fell to sixth place in the MIAC with a 77-73 loss on Wednesday night (Feb. 18) at Bethel. The Auggies and Royals went to halftime knotted at 31-31, before Bethel pulled ahead to a 56-46 lead with 10 minutes remaining. Augsburg chipped away at Bethel's lead, making it a 75-71 game with under a minute left in the half before BU's free throws put victory too far out of reach for the visitors. The Auggies shot 43.1 percent (28-for-65) from the field and 6-for-22 (27.2 percent) from behind the arc. Junior (6-foot-3) guard Elias Batala dropped 22 points and four assists, while sophomore (6-foot-0) guard Hanif Muhammad added 17 points with a 4-for-5 showing from three-point. Freshman (6-foot-6) guard JJ Semanko recorded 15 points to go with eight boards and four assists. He leads the Auggies' offense with an average of 17.1 points per game. 

EARLIER THIS SEASON: Bean drained a three-pointer with 0.3 seconds remaining to give the Johnnies an 84-81 win over Augsburg earlier this season on Jan. 3 in Minneapolis. Down by one (79-78) with just under three minutes remaining, a trio of Johnnies went 1-for-2 at the free-throw line to provide the game's scoring over the next 1:43 and give the visitors an 81-79 lead.

Elias Batala, who finished with a game-high 25 points, evened the score for the seventh time of the half (11th time of the game) for Augsburg with a pair of free throws in the ensuing possession. Both teams missed shots in the paint before sophomore post Charlie Theis (Cottage Grove, Minn./East Ridge) grabbed the defensive rebound with 27 seconds left. The Johnnies inbounded the ball against the Auggies' full-court press and called a timeout prior to a 10-second violation. Bean took the ensuing inbounds pass with 17.6 seconds on the clock and possessed it for the first 12 seconds before tossing the ball to Podany at the top of the key. Bean settled into the right corner, took a dribble to his left and drained the game-winning trey in front of his bench.

Podany fell two assists shy of a triple-double, his second collegiate double-double, with 23 points, 10 rebounds and the eight helpers. He finished 8-for-13 from the field and 5-for-9 from three-point range.

SJU shot 57.1 percent (12-for-21) from the field in the second half to finish at 54.7 percent (29-for-53) for the game.

A pair of Johnnies reached double figures for points off the bench. Theis collected 16 points and five rebounds, while junior wing Jamison Lien (Prior Lake, Minn.) added 12 points. Tschetter tallied 10 points.

The Johnnies' largest lead reached 13 on two occasions in the first half (33-20 with 6:46 left) but the Auggies went on a 14-0 run over the next 2:09 to gain their first lead of the game and scored seven of the half's final nine points for a 47-44 advantage at the break. Augsburg made 57.6 percent (19-for-33) of its shots in the first 20 minutes.

The home team scored the first basket of the second half before SJU flexed for an 8-0 run. A 7-2 run gave SJU a 69-62 lead with 8:23 remaining, but a 7-0 sprint for Augsburg, capped by a Batala trey, tied the game with 6:16 left.

The Auggies shot 37.5 percent (9-for-24) in the second half to dip below 50 percent (49.1) for the game. SJU outrebounded AUG 35-26 and posted a 40-26 scoring advantage in the paint.

SERIES HISTORY: The Johnnies are 72-60 against the Auggies since 1964-65, including a 35-15 record in Collegeville. SJU has won 21 of the last 25 meetings overall and 11 of the last 13 in Sexton Arena.