| Tyler Nicolai, right, and Alex Healy celebrate
Nicolai's game-winning shot. St. Thomas athletics photo by Greg Smith. |
Senior All-American guard Tyler Nicolai nailed a 3-point basket as time expired to lift the host Tommies (11-0 overall, 6-0 MIAC) past second-place Carleton (5-5, 4-1) 62-59 in Wednesday's MIAC men's basketball thriller at the new Schoenecker Arena.
The No. 5-ranked Tommies, who were down six points at halftime, have won seven of their 11 games after trailing in the second half.
Coach Steve Fritz's Tommies ran their regular-season win streak to 23 and their on-campus conference win streak to 49, but needed patience and persistence to outlast the Knights.
Carleton led 59-57 and had the ball after a St. Thomas turnover with 38 seconds to go. The Knights missed two free throws with 31 seconds remaining. UST's Alex Healy made both ends of a 1-and-1 chance with 21 seconds left to tie the score.
Carleton called a timeout with 13 seconds left, but was whistled for traveling with :07 on the clock. After a UST timeout, Nicolai took the inbounds pass in the far court, dribbled hard and pulled up at the top of the key and swished the Toms' first buzzer-beating basket in recent memory.
Jeremy Sutherland had 16 points, Caleb Rosenow had 13 points and Tom Sawatzke scored 12 for the Knights, who had a 15-6 edge in bench points and a 24-9 advantage in points behind the arc. Carleton was hurt by a 13-of-24 night at the foul line. Both teams shot 42% from the floor and were almost spot on their 61 ppg defensive average.
St. Thomas junior center Tommy Hannon had a career-high 19 rebounds to go with 14 points for the winners. Nicolai had 16 points, five steals and four assists, and Healy added 16 points for UST.
The Toms, now 5-0 in their new facility, outrebounded Carleton 38-28 and had only 12 turnovers.
Carleton went scoreless over the last 2:00 after Sawatzke's 3-pointer put it ahead 59-57 with 2:11 to play. The Toms had no field goals in the last 5:00 until Nicolai's buzzer-beating shot.
Next up for St. Thomas is a 3 p.m. Saturday home game against second-place Gustavus.
Click here for box score: http://www.tommiesports.com/mbb/stats/1-5-mbb.htm