Behind guard Grant Shaeffer’s 22 points and a 18-9 push to end the game, the No. 6-ranked St. Thomas men’s basketball team edged Wisconsin-River Falls 70-69 Tuesday night at Schoenecker Arena.
It was all River Falls from the beginning, starting off the game 5-5 shooting to grab an early lead. The Falcons (1-4 overall, 0-0 WIAC) shot 61.4 percent from the floor, but 22 turnovers negated their hot shooting. St. Thomas (4-0 overall, 0-0 MIAC) battled from behind for most of the game before grabbing the lead late to earn the win.
“It was a really gritty win. They’re a tough opponent year in and year out,” coach John Tauer said. “(Our guys) really kept playing, and I thought our defense was markedly better the last 30 minutes relative to the first 10.”
Despite River Falls shooting 72.2 percent inside the arc, the Tommies never trailed by more than 6 points in the first half because of 13 Falcon turnovers.
“That’s part of how we’ve tried to build this team, is our full-court pressure. We know it’s not going to be 40 minutes of forcing turnovers,” Tauer said. “It’s certainly not going to be evident every possession, but it’s the kind of grind-it-out victory that really demonstrates their trust in both each other and our system.”
Forward Ryan Saarela was the offensive force that kept St. Thomas close in the first half, scoring 12 of his 14 points in the first 20 minutes of the game.
“We want to get each other (the ball) in the post. When we have smaller guys on each other, we’ve got to take advantage of that,” Saarela said. “And tonight, it happened to be me.”
River Falls came out firing in the second half, tying the game at 39 with under 12:30 to play. The Falcons eventually went on a 10-2 run, claiming their largest lead of 8 points.
“I think the big things are to always talk about trust, and the other is it’s a possession game,” Tauer said. “You can’t win it quick. I thought there were a couple possessions where suddenly we took quick shots that were tough ones.”
Shaeffer once again played a significant role for the Tommies in the second half, scoring 14 of his 22 total points.
“I just think when the game comes down to the wire and we need a bucket, I like to be the guy with the ball either making a pass or making a bucket,” Shaeffer said. “I just kind of like that moment. I always have.”
On top of Shaeffer’s push, the Tommies eventually struck back with an unguarded 3-pointer from guard Marcus Alipate with under three minutes to play, tying the game at 62.
St. Thomas regained momentum after forward Conner Nord flushed one home in transition, putting the Tommies up by four. River Falls guard Grant Erickson answered with 5 points in the next two possessions, but it wasn’t enough for the Falcons. St. Thomas pressured the opposition and ended the game on a 18-9 run.
“We’ve seen all season when we lay off the full-court pressure, (other teams) will start going on their own run,” Shaeffer said. “We just got to keep pressuring them and keep turning (turnovers) into offense, that’s where a lot of our runs come from.”
The Tommies resume action Dec. 3 for their first conference game at Gustavus.
Jordan Kruger can be reached at krug6172@stthomas.edu.