28 January 2024
The St. Thomas Tommies knew they would be facing a motivated opponent on Saturday night when the North Dakota Fighting Hawks visited Schoenecker Arena.
The last time the two teams met — Dec. 29 in Grand Forks — the Tommies embarrassed the Fighting Hawks on their home court, leading 41-14 at halftime before coasting to a 70-45 victory.
This time out was a completely different story. The Fighting Hawks were locked in from the start, beating the Tommies 74-64 and dropping St. Thomas to 14-8 overall and 4-3 in the Summit League.
“Credit North Dakota, they played an outstanding game,” said St. Thomas coach Johnny Tauer. “They outplayed us in most facets of the game. While we didn’t shoot it the way we would have liked, I think a lot of that was a testament to their defense.”
Three Fighting Hawks scored in double figures, led by Mankato’s B.J. Omot with 22. Guard Eli King had 17 and guard Tyree Ihenacho, a senior from Prior Lake, had 13.
“You look at the score the last time we played them,” said North Dakota coach Paul Sather. “I told our team this, I thought they showed us a lot of respect for the way they played at our place.
“We didn’t do our part in that game. They mowed us over. We didn’t give them a game. We didn’t look at one ounce of film on that game. Our focus was on now.”
The Fighting Hawks (12-10, 4-3 Summit) came into the game having won three straight, all against Summit League opponents, beating Kansas City, Oral Roberts and Denver by an average of 12.3 points per game.
The Tommies were unable to take advantage of a spectacular 32-point night by Raheem Anthony. Tommies leading scorer Parker Bjorklund, who scored a career-high 32 points in a win over North Dakota State on Thursday, scored only four points.
Keeping Bjorklund under wraps was a big part of the Fighting Hawks’ game plan.
“With them you have to switch,” Sather said. “We did a great job of trying to not let him get to that right shoulder.”
Bjorklund never got into the flow of the game offensively.
“We certainly didn’t get him enough touches, enough looks,” Tauer said. “Again, credit their defense. But we have to get him more looks and be better balanced.”
Both teams managed just one basket in the first four minutes of the game, shooting a combined 2 for 13. The Tommies trailed 16-13 before going on a 6-0 run to take the lead with just over eight minutes to play in the first half.
But the Fighting Hawks dominated the rest of the half to take a 38-27 lead to the locker room. The Fighting Hawks made five of their 13 3-point attempts in the half (38.5 percent) while the Tommies were one of 10.
Anthony and Kendall Blue accounted for most of the Tommies’ offense in the first half with 12 and seven points, respectively. Bjorklund was scoreless, missing the only two shots he took — both 3s.
The Tommies made a couple of mini runs in the second half. The Fighting Hawks’ lead was down to six with 10 minutes to play at 50-44. It was a 55-50 game before North Dakota went on a 9-4 run to push the lead back to 10 with 5:30 to play.
“It’s really hard to win in college basketball at the Division I level,” Tauer said. “They deserved and earned the win tonight.”
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