Box Score

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – Peyton Podany (Anoka, Minn.) and his teammates on the Saint John's University basketball team came into Saturday afternoon's regular-season finale against Augsburg with one mission.
 
Assuring this wasn't the season's final home game.
 
Podany, a freshman guard and the reigning MIAC Men's Basketball Offensive Player of the Week, made certain that mission got accomplished and then some, tying his career-best with 34 points to go with seven rebounds as the Johnnies held on to down the Auggies 81-79 in Sexton Arena.
 
The win - coupled with Carleton's 80-68 win over St. Olaf - makes the Johnnies (15-10, 11-5 MIAC) the No. 2 seed in next week's six-team MIAC Playoffs, meaning not just at least one more home game, but a bye in Tuesday's quarterfinals.
 
SJU will host the highest seed still remaining in the semifinals at 7 p.m. Thursday in Collegeville.
 
"This feels amazing," said Podany, whose team is now 11-3 since the holiday break. "We've been steadily improving all through the second half of the season. We've been working hard and we're finally starting to play at the level of basketball we want to be playing at."
 
The Johnnies had the momentum early, jumping out to an 18-7 lead on a 3-pointer from Podany but the Auggies answered with an 18-3 run for its largest lead of the game – four (25-21) – with 8:02 left in the first half. SJU, however, responded with a 20-8 run to close the half for a 41-33 halftime team. The Johnnies finished the first half 16-for-30 (53.3 percent) from the field. Podany led the way with 13 points.
 
But the Auggies (16-9, 9-7 MIAC) battled back once again, cutting the SJU lead to just 43-40 on a layup from Elias Batala early in the second half, then taking the lead 51-50 after a 3-pointer by Trent Gomez and a pair of free throws by Batala with 12:46 to play.


 
From there, things swung back and forth with the lead trading hands 10 times before a 3-pointer by Podany with 5:07 left to go started an 8-0 run that put the Johnnies in front to stay. Augsburg cut the gap to as little as three (74-71) on a layup by Gomez with 2:36 remaining. But another 3-pointer by Podany with 2:21 to go helped SJU put things just out of reach, though the Auggies cut the gap to two on a jumper by Batala in the final second of play.
 
"We've been in a lot of close games this year and we've learned a lot about how to handle pressure," said Podany, who had six of his team's 13 3-pointers. "I thought our guards and our bigs did a great job keeping their heads level even when they went on some runs after halftime."
 
Junior guard Baiden Bean (Farmington, Minn.) added 15 points, nine assists and five rebounds. Senior guard Thomas Menk (Lewiston, Minn./Lewiston-Altura) made Senior Day count, finishing with a career-high 10 points and five rebounds in a career-best 28 minutes off the bench. SJU finished 31-for-63 (49.2 percent) from the field.
 
So now it's on to a top two seed and a bye into the MIAC semifinals - something that may not have seemed likely when the Johnnies - who lost eight of their top nine starters from a year ago to graduation - were just 4-7 overall at Christmas.
 
"We've stayed together and continued to grow as a team," SJU head coach Pat McKenzie '04 said. "It's crazy to think we're where we're at right now. But that says a lot about our guys and the way they've stayed the course. It's been so fun to see this group grow and get better, and now we've put ourselves in a pretty good spot."
 
"We've been underdogs all year," Podany added. "We got off to a rough start and people may have counted us out. But we've battled back. Things have come together for us and I think people realize now on any given night we can compete with anybody."

SJU outrebounded Augsburg 35-30, including a 9-5 edge on the offensive glass that turned into a 14-7 advantage in second-chance points. The Auggies, however, shot 51.9 percent (14-for-27) in the second half to finish at an even 50 percent (27-for-54) for the game and went 21 of 28 from the free-throw line to the Johnnies' 6-for-10 showing.