St. Thomas won while Minnesota lost as the two metro Division I men’s basketball teams took to the hardcourt for their respective conference road matchups on Saturday night.
St. Thomas 104, Kansas City 64
The Tommies were none too happy about losing their third Summit League game of the season at Omaha this week, and they took it out on Kansas City in their follow-up contest.
St. Thomas came out heavy and hard early, and never let up in a 104-64 pounding of the host Kangaroos. The Tommies led 43-29 at the break before putting up 61 points after halftime en route to the 40-point victory.
Nolan Minessale led all scorers with 25 points — nearly twice as many as K.C.’s top points producer — as five UST players posted double digits in the points column. Ben Oosterbaan logged 17 points, followed by Isaiah Johnson-Arigu with 15, Jermaine Coleman with 14, and Nick Janowski with 11. Minessale also added team highs in rebounds (7) and assists (5).
With the win, the Tommies (21-7 overall, 10-3 Summit) reclaimed sole possession of second place in the Summit standings as North Dakota fell to conference leader North Dakota State on Saturday. Kansas City (4-22, 1-11) remained in the Summit cellar with Oral Roberts.
St. Thomas finishes off its final road trip of the regular season at Denver next Saturday, with tip-off scheduled for 5 p.m. The game will be televised on the Summit League Network.
Washington 69, Minnesota 57
It was far from a happy Valentine’s Day for the Gophers, who got down early and couldn’t recover despite a late surge in a 12-point loss at Washington.
The Huskies took a 39-26 halftime lead en route to a 69-57 victory over Minnesota in Seattle.
Cade Tyson led the Gophers with 22 points and nine rebounds, while Bobby Durkin and Isaac Asuma chipped in 13 and 11 points, respectively. It was a night that saw the visitors rely heavily on their starting five with coach Niko Medved employing just two reserves for a total of 18 minutes in the entire game.
Minnesota lost for the ninth time in 10 games, with just a shock 76-73 win over 10th-ranked Michigan State on Feb. 4 to stem the tide.
The Gophers (11-14 overall, 4-10 Big Ten) fell behind the Huskies (13-13, 5-10) into 13th place in the conference standings. Minnesota remains on the left coast for a Tuesday night game at Oregon, with the opening tip slated to take place at 9:30 p.m. local time. The game will be televised on FS1.
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