Sophomore forward Josh Pella’s overtime heroics helped the St. Thomas men’s basketball team to a 66-62 victory against Gustavus Adolphus College to win the MIAC Championship game Sunday, Feb. 26. The win also gave the Tommies an automatic bid to play in the NCAA Division III tournament, where they will play Claremont-Mudd-Scripps of California in Whitewater, Wis., on Friday.

After ending the season tied in the conference standings, St. Thomas and Gustavus carried the same season-long drama into the final seconds of the game. With 36 seconds left and the game tied at 62, sophomore guard Erik Tengwall stole the ball on an inbound and hit a layup to give St. Thomas its first lead in overtime.

With 14 seconds left, Pella dove onto a loose ball when sophomore forward Zach Riedeman knocked it out of the hands of a Gustavus player. Pella was fouled and made one free throw. Three seconds later he stole the ball, was fouled again and made one of two free throws with 4.4 seconds left for the final score.

“I saw the ball rolling on the floor and I just said, ‘I gotta grab it,’” Pella said. “That’s what coach told me to do, that’s what I’m put into the game to do, and I executed.”

This was the second consecutive championship meeting for the two teams, and it had the same outcome. The teams played each other twice this year with Gustavus winning in overtime in St. Peter, Minn., and St. Thomas winning at home.

“We got them up here, they got us in overtime down there,” Riedeman said. “In the locker room before the game, we were just saying, ‘they aren’t beating us twice in one year, we won’t let that happen.’”

The Tommies (21-6 overall, 16-4 MIAC) are the defending NCAA champions. Gustavus (20-7 overall, 16-4 MIAC), which tied St. Thomas for the regular season MIAC title, will play Wisconsin-Whitewater on the other side of the bracket from UST.

Riedeman came off the bench to lead the Tommies with 19 points. Junior guard Will DeBerg added 17 points for St. Thomas. Senior Tyler Grey scored 19 points, and senior Seth Anderson added 16 for the Gusties.

With 23 seconds left in regulation, Anderson hit a jump shot to put Gustavus ahead 55-54 for their first lead of the game. With 15 seconds left, junior guard John Nance was fouled and made one of two free throws to tie the game and send the two teams into overtime.

“He put the ball in my hands, I was ready to go,” Nance said. “It’s something that I’m used to doing. If the team needs me to get to the hoop, I’m going to do it.”

“We knew it was going to be a battle going in,” coach John Tauer said. “I think that everyone who was here today saw a great college basketball game between two really good teams.”

Tauer said he was incredibly proud of his team.

“All this is a testament to, is teamwork and believing in one another,” Tauer said. “Because there were a lot of times over the season that they could’ve doubted themselves and there were a lot of times today that they could’ve. They just trusted one another and I’m incredibly proud of them.”

Tauer thanked all of the fans in attendance.

“This is why you coach, for games like this,” he said.

Nick McAndrews can be reached at mcan1933@stthomas.edu.