The No. 3-ranked St. Thomas men’s basketball team jumped out to an early lead and never gave it up on the way to a 73-55 win Wednesday night over Concordia-Moorhead at the Gangelhoff Center at Concordia-St. Paul.

Tyler Niccolai led the Tommies (4-0, 1-0 in MIAC) in scoring with 15 points as St. Thomas ran its conference winning streak to 26 games. Joe Scott had 13 points and Alex Healy added 11 to round out the three Tommies in double digits.

St. Thomas weathered a late first half run as the Cobbers (3-2, 0-1) cut the lead down to 36-30 at halftime. But the Tommies came out strong in the second half and quickly extended the lead back out to double digits for good.

“Our main goal in the second half was to pick up our tempo, go out and re-establish our energy,” Healy said. “Our press created some turnovers and got us some easy buckets. Those are the type of plays that pick up everyone.”

With tonight’s game coming after a close road win last Tuesday at Wisconsin-River Falls, coach Steve Fritz said his team still has work to do.

“We showed flashes of good things tonight,” Fritz said. “We still just haven’t hit a stride yet where we’re very comfortable all around.”

The Tommies showed off the team’s depth as 14 different players clocked playing time, outscoring Concordia’s bench 28-10.

St. Thomas moves to 4-0 on the season and will play St. Olaf at Macalester College Saturday.

Jordan Osterman can be reached at jrosterman@stthomas.edu