St. Olaf Uses Strong Start To Cruise Past Men’s Basketball 82-59

Ben Biewen led the Gusties with 18 points in Saturday's loss to St. Olaf.

The Gustavus men’s basketball team saw its two-game winning streak come to an end with an 82-59 loss at St. Olaf on Saturday afternoon in Northfield, Minn.  Ole Bobby Fong scored a game-high 31 points on 12-of-21 shooting to lead the way.  Gustavus drops to 4-3 overall and 3-2 in the MIAC with the loss, while St. Olaf improves to 4-5 overall 3-2 in the MIAC.

The Oles used a big scoring first half to take a 44-24 at halftime.  Gustavus shot 33.3-percent compared to St. Olaf’s 45.9-percent in the half.  Twenty-one of Bobby Fong’s 31 total points came inside the opening half.

The Gusties battled back to cut the lead to 58-45 with 8:23 left in the second half. That would be as close as they would come as St. Olaf extended its edge to 22 points (70-48) with 4:22 left to play.

Gustavus was led in scoring by Ben Biewen and Seth Anderson.  Biewen led the way with 18 points on 7-of-13 shooting, while Anderson scored 17 points and was 8-for-17 from the field.  The Gusties shot 38.5-percent (25-65) from the field in the game.

Joining Fong in double-figures was Connor Gunderson, Stu Neville, and Sterling Nielson.  Gunderson scored 18 point (7-11), Neville had 15 (6-9), and Nielson added 11 (3-6).  St. Olaf shot 50.8-percent (31-61) from the field and 43.8-percent (7-16) from three-point range.

The Gusties will be off through finals week before jumping on a plane for Las Vegas, Nev. from Dec. 28-29.  Gustavus will take on Hardin-Simmons on Dec. 28 at 9:00 p.m. and Transylvania on Dec. 29 at 11:00 p.m.

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