Men’s Basketball Can’t Hold Late Lead, Falls To St. Thomas In Overtime Posted on January 8th, 2011 by

The Gustavus men’s basketball team suffered its third consecutive heartbreaking overtime loss falling to St. Thomas 68-64 in St. Paul on Saturday afternoon.  The Gusties led the entire second half, but two clutch three-point baskets by Tommie senior Tyler Nicolai, the second with 3.6 seconds left in regulation play forced the extra session.  In the overtime another key three-point basket, this one by Alex Healy with 34 seconds left gave the Tommies a five-point lead (67-62) that the Gusties would not be able to overcome.  Tyler Grey led Gustavus in scoring with 11 points.

St. Thomas jumped out to an early seven point lead at 10-3, but countered with a 9-2 run that tied the score at 12-12 midway through the first half.  A Tyler Grey jumper with 52 seconds left gave Gustavus a two-point 28-26 lead at the intermission.  Grey sparked the Gusties in the opening 20 minutes scoring nine points on 4-of-5 shooting from the field including 1-of-2 from behind the arc.

In the second half, Gustavus slowly built its lead to nine points at 41-32 at the 15:15 mark.  A three-point basket by Dan Schmidtknecht at the 9:14 mark pushed the Gustavus lead back to nine points at 51-42, however the Tommies would battle back and outscore the Gusties 18-9 the rest of the game to tie the score at 60-60 at the end of regulation play.  Two free throws by Bobby Johnson at the 1:03 mark gave Gustavus a 58-54 lead, but Nicolai would knock down a three-point basket with 44 seconds left to cut the lead to 58-57.  Schmidtknecht pushed the lead back to three at 60-57 as he made two free throws with 18 seconds left.  Nicolai drained his second dramatic three-point basket in as many games as he tied the score at 60-60 with a fall-away 26 foot trey with 3.6 seconds left in regulation play.

In the overtime, the score was tied at 61-61 when Tommy Hannon converted a traditional three-basket with a bucket and a free throw giving the Tommies a 64-61 lead at the 1:52 mark.  A three-point basket by Healy with 18 seconds left pushed the lead to five for St. Thomas at 67-62.  Seth Anderson made a basket as time expired for Gustavus making the final score 68-64.

Box Score

 

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