Late shot lets Toms escape with home victory

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Senior forward Zach Riedeman sank a 14-foot fadeaway shot with four seconds left to rally the No. 11-ranked Tommies (8-2 overall, 5-0 MIAC) past the visiting Oles (7-4, 4-2) in Wednesday night's MIAC men's basketball game at Schoenecker Arena.

St. Olaf used a 6-0 run in the final 1:10 to take a 61-60 lead, the latter points via two Sterling Nielsen free throws on both ends of a 1-and-1 with 19 seconds to go.

After a UST timeout, Riedeman, who was 0-of-4 in free throws in the final 9:00 minutes, made amends as he drove into the lane and pulled back and drained the jumper.

St. Olaf had just 2.2 seconds to go and used two timeouts to reach half court but was unable to get a shot off in the last second off an inbounds play.

The Tommies pushed their home court win streak to 26 and their win streak over MIAC opponents to 15 as they survived 16-of-27 foul shooting and 16 turnovers. They shot 54 percent from the floor and had a 31-27 edge in rebounding.

In the final 13:30, the game was tied six times and there were five lead changes.

For St. Thomas, senior Erik Tengwall had 16 points, Riedeman had 14, sophomore Taylor Montero scored 12 and junior Conner Nord chipped in 11 rebounds.

St. Olaf, which had a three-game winning streak end, only had five turnovers and shot 46 percent. Nielsen had a game-high 18 points with five steals and four assists, and teammate Connor Gunderson scored 13 points.