No. 12-ranked St. Thomas used hot first-half shooting and a season-low three turnovers to surge past Bethel 74-59 in Friday night's MIAC men's basketball playoff semifinal game at Schoenecker Arena.
The win puts St. Thomas (22-4) into the MIAC playoff title game for the eighth time in the last nine seasons.
The top-seeded Tommies will host No. 2-seed St. Olaf Sunday at 2 p.m. for the championship and conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament. The Oles (21-5) won 66-53 at home Friday over Gustavus.
The Tommies, who climbed to 11-1 at home this season, played without injured senior guard Erik Tengwall yet still finished with four players scoring in double figures led by Marcus Alipate's 13 points. Conner Nord, Grant Shaeffer and Zach Riedeman each finished with 12 points for St. Thomas, and Nord added a game-high eight rebounds. Cortez Tillman scored nine points to help build a 20-12 advantage in bench points.