Senior John Nance scored a game-high 19 points and chipped in eight rebounds and the No. 1-ranked Tommies survived a poor night at the foul line to hold off St. Olaf, 62-57, in Wednesday night MIAC men's basketball play at Schoenecker Arena.

Noah Kaiser had 11 points and Will DeBerg had 10 points and nine rebounds for the Tommies (24-1 overall, 19-1 MIAC), who improved to 12-0 at home and won their ninth in a row to close the regular season.

Coach John Tauer's Tommies became just the fifth MIAC squad in the last 30 seasons to win 19 or more games in the 20-game conference race. Augsburg did it in 1998-99 (19-1) and St. Thomas did it with 20-0 records in 1994-95 and 2008-09 and 19-1 records in 2009-10 and this season.

St. Thomas made only 16-of-30 at the foul line on a night where 44 personal fouls and two technical fouls were whistled. St. Olaf converted 19-of-25 at the foul line but made just 2-of-16 from 3-point range, though, and was limited to 18 field goals on the game.

Nathan Kuck had 10 points and Connor Gunderson had 10 rebounds for the Oles (9-15, 8-11), who never led but hung around all game. They pulled within 56-53 with 1:48 to play on two free throws by Kuck. But Tommy Hannon's basket and four UST free throws down the stretch let the Tommies hang on to win.

St. Thomas is idle until Friday Feb. 22 when it hosts an MIAC playoff semifinal round game.