Behind guard Taylor Montero’s stellar 3-point shooting and team-leading 17 points, the No. 2-ranked St. Thomas men’s basketball team defeated Gustavus Adolphus College 64-52 Wednesday night at Schoenecker Arena.

The Tommies (16-1, 11-1 MIAC) defeated the Golden Gusties (10-7, 6-5 MIAC) at home, avenging their only loss of the year, a 68-65 defeat in St. Peter, Minnesota. Since the loss on Dec. 3, St. Thomas has rattled off 13 straight wins.

“Gustavus is a really good team. They’re exceptionally coached, and obviously the first time we played them we lost,” coach John Tauer said. “We knew coming in we had to do a better job both defensively and on the boards, and I thought for the most part we did.”

St. Thomas claimed the lead on the first possession of the game and never looked back. Tauer credited his team’s full court pressure and defense in Wednesday’s win, something he thought the team needed to improve from the loss earlier in the season.

“I thought our guys, in the post particularly – Conner Nord, Ryan Saarela, Jimmy Remke and Jimmy Ancius – all those guys I thought were able to both defend and make them take tough shots in the post,” Tauer said. “I thought in general the guys knew the game plan, which was very solid and they executed it really well defensively. Overall, I liked our tenacity on defense a lot.”

St. Thomas was coming off consecutive wins against the second, third and fourth place teams in the conference, leaving room for a possible let down. Guard Marcus Alipate said the team was focused, taking this tough stretch of the season one game at a time.

“I think it was just coming out ready to play,” Alipate said about the mindset of the team. “I think anytime you play a team like this, definitely you can have a let down, but I think that our team came out ready to play. I mean, the end result is always good getting a win.”

Montero found his stroke in the second half of the game, scoring 10 of his 17 points in the final 20 minutes. Montero helped spark a run that led St. Thomas to its largest lead of 19 points, knocking down a three and getting a steal on the ensuing inbound pass.

“I’m just shooting it with confidence. That was the biggest thing I had issues with in the beginning of the year,” Montero said. “Like coach always says, don’t hope it goes in, know that it’s going in. That’s what I’ve changed.”

“I think it’s certainly natural to still feel the sting of any loss, particularly when it’s the only one we’ve had so far,” Tauer said. “That said, one of the things I love about this group is they really treat each game as an opportunity, regardless of who we are playing or where we are playing.”

St. Thomas resumes action 3 p.m. Saturday at home against Augsburg.

Jordan Kruger can be reached at krug6172@stthomas.edu.