Senior guard Riley Miller led the St. Thomas men’s basketball team to a 73-53 victory over Division III Crown College with 22 points in its home premiere at Schoenecker Arena Thursday night.
The Tommies (4-4) are coming back from a busy road schedule, facing seven teams in four states over the past three weeks. The Storm (4-5) are the Tommies’ first and only Division III competition of the season.
“We talked before the game respecting every opponent, it doesn’t matter to Division I, II or III,” coach John Tauer said. “While we weren’t as good tonight in certain areas, a lot of credit Crown, I think they’re really well coached and they know their identity.”
Miller found comfort behind the arc, hitting 7 of the Tommies’ 15 3-pointers of the game. In the first seven games, the senior guard has averaged 18.4 points per game while having a 46% 3-point shooting percentage.
“Hitting my first shot—yeah, I could tell I was going to be on tonight,” Miller said.
The men’s basketball team takes on Drake University, continuing their non-conference play at 2 p.m. Sunday in Des Moines, Iowa.
Graduate student forward Erin Norling led the St. Thomas women’s basketball team with 19 points on 8-of-16 shooting, but the Tommies’ meager 34% perimeter shooting was unable to best Northern Iowa as the Tommies fell 102-62 Wednesday at Schoenecker Arena.
The match marked the first time the Tommies (1-6) have faced the Panthers (4-2) in basketball competition in program history. As a whole, St. Thomas athletics are 0-2-1 against Northern Iowa in the Division I era.
The women’s basketball team takes on Chicago State University Saturday, Dec. 4 at noon in their final away game before a five-game home stretch.
Members of the St. Thomas swim and dive team received two TicketSmarter Summit League Swimmer of the Week awards this month, with first-year swimmer Elizabeth Bonneville receiving the Women’s Swimmer of the Week award on Nov. 22 and senior diver Peyton Ekman being awarded Women’s Diver of the Week on Nov. 2.
Bonneville received the award following her performance in the JoAnn Andregg Invitational where the Tommies hosted the St. Cloud State Huskies and the University of Minnesota State Mavericks in a two-day competition Nov. 12-13. She placed first in the 100 yard freestyle, with a time of :52.30, beating her previous best time by 1.2 seconds.
Ekman, who placed third in the diving portion of the JoAnn Andregg Invitational, scoring 232.65 points on the first day and 399.40 points on the second, regards the award as a confidence boost for the rest of her season.
The swim and dive team competes next at the Rochester Invitational hosted by Saint Cloud State University on Dec. 3-5, in Rochester, Minn.
Web Manager Lauren Dettmer can be reached at lauren.dettmer@stthomas.edu.