ST. PETER, Minn. – The Gustavus men’s basketball team got stuck in a rut offensively to start the first half and couldn’t recover in a 72-56 loss to St. Olaf Wednesday night at Gus Young Court. The loss moves the Gusties to 5-17 overall and 5-12 in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, while the Oles earn the series sweep, improving to 10-11 overall and 8-8 in the league.
Both teams combined to start the game 0-for-7 from the floor in the first two minutes. St. Olaf scored its first points soon after and never trailed the rest of the way. The Gusties were able to tie the score 7-7 at the 15:07 mark, but St. Olaf scored 13 unanswered points to take a comfortable 20-7 advantage with 11:04 remaining in the half. The Oles carried a 32-20 lead into halftime. The Gusties went point-for-point in the early-going of the second frame, but were never able to crack the deficit to single digits as the Oles claimed the 16-point victory.
St. Olaf shot 58.7 percent from the floor and held the home team to 42.9 percent. The Oles also won the rebounding battle 33-26. Austin Korba led all scorers with 20 points. Spencer Tollefson (So., New Richland, Minn.) led the Gusties with 16 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field. Peter Kruize (Sr., St. Peter, Minn.) added 10 points off the bench and Kelsey Thomas (Jr., Wiesbaden, Germany) hauled in a team-high seven rebounds.
Gustavus next travels to Saint John’s (14-7, 10-6 MIAC) for a 3 p.m. Saturday tipoff. The Johnnies won the first game of the series 73-56 on Jan. 7 in St. Peter.