St. Thomas men’s basketball will play North Dakota State University in the quarterfinals of the Summit League Championships at 6 p.m. on Sunday, March 10 at the Denny Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
The Tommies finished the regular season 19-12 and 9-7 in the conference, earning them the fourth seed in the tournament. This is only their second season competing in the Summit League Championships since their transition to Division I.
“(I) couldn’t be more proud of our guys and really the entire athletic department. How in year three of this transition from Division III to Division I, I think not just the way they competed on the court but the way they conduct themselves, the way they treat other people in the community,” coach Johnny Tauer said.
The Tommies split their series with the Bison 1-1 this season with both games swinging wildly in either direction. In their first matchup at Schoenecker Arena, St. Thomas came away with a commanding 79-66 victory. Graduate forward Parker Bjorklund notched a career-high 32 points on 22 attempts.
When St. Thomas played North Dakota State in Fargo, it was the opposite. Bjorklund was held to just 11 points and the Tommies lost 64-50. Junior forward Andrew Morgan led the Bison with 17 points. Morgan is the second-leading scorer for NDSU with 13.2 points per game and an average of five rebounds.
“Andrew Morgan is one of the toughest, most physical posts you’re going to find anywhere,” Tauer said.
Joining Morgan down on the block is redshirt first-year forward Noah Feddersen. Both Morgan and Feddersen stand at 6-foot-10 inches and 245 pounds, creating a size mismatch against the Tommies.
“Between (Morgan) and Feddersen, they’ve got really good size and sort of the traditional North Dakota State posts. But I think they probably have better shooters than they have had,” Tauer said.
North Dakota State is the most efficient three-point shooting team in the Summit League at 37%. Junior guard Jacari White is the top long-distance shooter for the Bison and has made 44.3% of his 140 attempts this season.
“Most of the time on the court, they have four guys who are really prolific three-point shooters,” Tauer said.
Sharing the backcourt with White is senior guard Boden Skunberg who leads the Bison with 14.3 points per game, eleventh in the Summit League.
Rounding out the starting five for North Dakota State is sophomore guard Damari Wheeler-Thomas who averages 11 points and 2.6 assists.
The Bison are on a collision course for the Tommies’ conference-leading defense. St. Thomas only allowed 68.4 points per game from conference opponents, and 65.3 in all games, which ranks the team twentieth in the nation.
“I think some of it is just their trust. We used that word a lot, trust in one another … depending on where’s the ball, who has the ball, who’s guarding that player, the other four guys should have a pretty good idea what they’re supposed to do,” Tauer said.
Opponents average 12 turnovers to the Tommies’ 9.1, giving them the best turnover margin in the conference. The spearhead of the defense is often senior guard Drake Dobbs who typically has the toughest defensive matchup.
Dobbs, along with junior guard Ryan Dufault held the nation’s leading scorer, graduate guard Tommy Bruner from Denver, to zero points in 24 minutes on March 2.
“Getting stops, we have the head of the snake in Drake Dobbs and Ryan Dufault who kind of set the tone for us defensively,” graduate guard Raheem Anthony said.
Dobbs also averages 9.7 points and 2.5 assists for the Tommies. He shares the backcourt with Anthony who averages 12.4 points and team highs of 3.3 assists and 1.4 steals.
Anthony joined St. Thomas after playing four years in Division III at St. Mary’s in Winona, Minnesota. Anthony said that it took a while to find his place with his new team, but after only shooting once in St.Thomas’ season opener against California-Berkeley, he turned his game up quickly.
His play earned him a spot on the All-Summit League Second Team and the All-Newcomer Team.
“It definitely took me a while, me being a new transfer. I didn’t know when the right time to strike was, especially being a veteran,” Anthony said. “But, it didn’t take too long though to get on Kendall about rebounding, Carter about having to post up, things like that.”
Sophomore guard Kendall Blue and redshirt first-year forward Carter Bjerke were a part of the same recruiting class, and finally shared the court this season.
Blue is averaging 10.4 points and 4.1 assists per game in the starting lineup and oftentimes is Anthony’s partner on the fastbreak.
Bjerke moved his way up the rotation this season and has proved to be a true stretch-forward. He shoots 45.3% from beyond the arc and scores 5.7 points per game.
Ahead of Bjerke in the frontcourt is the graduate forward duo of Brooks Allen and Parker Bjorklund.
Allen is in his fifth season at St. Thomas and will be playing in his second and final Summit League tournament.
“Now it’s going to be my last time playing organized basketball, something I’ve been playing for my whole life. So, I’m going to really try to enjoy it. Hopefully, we can come away with three good wins,” Allen said.
Allen has been averaging 6.7 points while playing 27.6 minutes per game for the Tommies. Where he really stands out is his role as a leader on and off the court.
Bjorklund earned a spot next to Anthony on the All-Summit League Second Team this season after leading St. Thomas with 13.5 points on 48.1% from the field. Bjorklund has had a unique path to Division I basketball.
When he graduated high school, he had no intention of playing basketball in college. After two years, he got the opportunity to try out for the team and followed it to Division I.
“We work hard every day and that’s, you know, where the results come from. Just putting in the effort every single day. I mean obviously, we got lucky, we got this transition, but at the end of the day it all comes down to hard work,” Bjorklund said
The Tommies fell in the semifinals to the eventual 2023 champion Oral Roberts in last year’s tournament. This year, they are looking to avoid that heartbreak.
“We talked about how competitive it is and no foul calls being made, so we kind of have to play our best brand of basketball down there,” Anthony said.
The Tommies are preparing to play in a postseason format that attracts more fans than they’ve seen at Schoenecker Arena.
“The crowds they draw are right up there if not at the top of mid-major basketball,” Tauer said.
Despite the four-hour drive and the Sunday night game, Allen riffed on ideas on how to get St. Thomas fans out to Sioux Falls.
“If any students are willing, maybe the professors can let them out of class or something. We’d love to have them there,” Allen said.
Adam Mueller can be reached at muel7541@stthomas.edu.