| Tyler Nicolai was tightly covered but drained a
three anyway to get St. Thomas to overtime against Gustavus
Adolphus. St. Thomas athletics photo by Greg Smith |
Tyler Nicolai sank his second buzzer-beating 3-point basket in four days, this one with 03.4 seconds to go, to force overtime, and the No. 5-ranked Tommies (12-0 overall, 7-0 MIAC) rallied from nine points down to outlast the Gusties (6-5, 4-2), 68-64 in Saturday's MIAC men's basketball game before 1,300 in attendance at UST's Schoenecker Arena.
Nicolai and Tommy Hannon each scored 16 points to lead UST, which maintained its 1.5-game lead on second-place Carleton.
St. Thomas won its eighth game of the season in which it trailed in the second half. UST never led all second half and took its first lead of overtime with 1:51 left as Hannon converted a 3-point play for a 64-61 edge.
Coach Steve Fritz's Tommies ran their regular-season win streak to 24 and their on-campus conference win streak to 50. The Toms are 6-0 in the new Anderson Athletic and Recreation Complex, including five comeback victories.
Gustavus lost its third overtime game in a row, all in the last 10 days.
The Gusties took a 55-49 lead with 4:47 to go but didn't make a field goal the rest of regulation.
After a time out and down 60-57, Nicolai dribbled near the top of the key. Despite GAC's Ben Biewen's tight defense and hand in his view, the UST senior All-American faded away and sank another 23-foot shot to tie the score at 60-60. That capped an 11-5 run in the last 4:40 of regulation. UST then stole the ball near midcourt and Nicolai flipped up a desperation 40-foot shot at the buzzer that hit the rim but missed.
In overtime, Gustavus scored just two free throws over the first 4:58. UST's Alex Healy, held to four points in regulation, sank a long 3-pointer as the shot clock was winding down with 34 seconds to go in overtime to put UST ahead 67-62.
Tyler Grey scored 11 points off the bench and Dan Schmidtknecht had nine points and six assists to lead the Gustie scoring. Both teams shot 43% from the floor, and GAC had a 36-35 rebounding edge.
The Gusties led just 28-26 at halftime but went ahead 51-42 with 9:11 left on Schmidtknecht's 3-pointer. UST was still down 55-50 late but John Nance's steal and layup with 1:58 left cut the deficit to three.
UST rebounded a Gustie miss and trailed just 58-57 with 25 seconds left but turned it over as it pushed it up court. Schmidtknect was fouled and made both free throws with 18.1 seconds left.
Nicolai topped second-place Carleton on a trey at the horn on Wednesday to snap a 59-59 tie. He launched this shot a few feet to the right but with more pressure and still got all net for his 198th career 3-pointer in his 98th career start.
UST achieved another rarity as it has started a men's basketball season 12-0 after starting its 2010 football season 12-0.