Sophomore guard Anders Nelson finished with 22 points and eight rebounds to lead No. 4-ranked St. Thomas Men's Basketball to a 73-70 road win over No. 8-ranked UW-Platteville in Saturday night's NCAA playoff second-round clash in Platteville, Wis.

Senior Tommy Anderson added 15 points, junior Burt Hedstrom scored 13, sophomore Riley Miller added 11 and senior Elijah Hannah closed with nine points.

Platteville (24-5) had won eight of its previous nine games.

The Tommies (26-3) advance to the March 14 Sweet 16 contest on the road against No. 2-ranked St. John's -- the teams' fourth meeting so far in 2020. The Purple are in the Sweet 16 for the third time in five seasons.

St. Thomas outscored Platteville 33-21 in 3-pointers and 18-13 at the foul line to offset a 34-18 deficit in points in the paint.

Platteville's last lead was at 15-14 midway through the first half. The Pioneers tied the game a few times and later pulled within one point several times late, but St. Thomas refused to yield the lead.

The Toms, who had only eight turnovers, sank 8-of-10 free throws in the final 1:42. They stole a dish-out pass in the final seconds to wrap up the win. The Pioneers raced up court in the final six seconds down three points but never got off a shot.

Coach John Tauer's Tommies have 16 victories away from home, including 13 road wins. They improved to 7-3 against teams with 18 or more wins. They are the lone team to face two top-25 teams this weekend, and the only top-10 ranked team to have to play another top-10 team on Saturday.