COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – The St. Olaf College men's basketball team was unable to slow down the efficient offense of Saint John's University in an 89-69 road loss on Wednesday night at Sexton Arena.
Saint John's (18-5, 16-2 MIAC) rebounded from a rare home loss by shooting 54.2 percent (32-for-59) from the field, 42.9 percent (9-for-21) from three-point range, and 78.9 percent (15-for-19) at the free-throw line to complete the regular-season sweep of St. Olaf (9-13, 8-9 MIAC). The Johnnies never trailed in the game, led by 20 at halftime, and were up by as many as 38 in the second half on their way to claiming the outright MIAC regular-season title and the No. 1 seed in the MIAC Playoffs.
Coming off an 80-79 loss to Concordia-Moorhead on Monday that was its first home loss of the season and just its fourth loss at Sexton Arena since the start of the 2021-22 season, Saint John's got points from 12 different players in the win. The Johnnies, who sat two spots outside of the D3hoops.com Top 25 this week, entered the game in the top three in NCAA Division III in shooting percentage (first, 51.1 percent), three-point field-goal percentage (second, 41.1 percent), and free-throw percentage (third, 80.7 percent).
Sophomore
Kobe Kirk recorded his fourth 20-point effort in the last five games and his fifth in the last seven with a game-high 23 points on 6-for-10 shooting from the field and 10-for-11 shooting at the charity stripe. First year
Jachin Mertes, who had not made more than one three-pointer in a game this season, hit 5-of-6 three-pointers on his way to a career-high 16 points and six rebounds. Fifth-year senior
Brendan Kauls and junior
Addison Metcalf were also in double figures with 12 and 11 points, respectively.
Brandon Adelman and Griffin Rushin were the top-two scorers on the night for Saint John's, combining for 33 points in 39 minutes off the bench. Adelman was 7-for-11 from the field on his way to 17 points, while Rushin connected on all three of his three-pointers to score 16 points. Blake Berg was the third Johnnie in double digits with 15 points on a 6-for-6 night from the floor. Saint John's got 54 points from its bench and 46 points in the paint in the win.
Saint John's raced out to a 14-1 lead over the first 5:36 of the game and hit 10 of its first 15 shots, compared to 3-for-15 shooting for St. Olaf, on its way to a 25-8 lead midway through the half. The Oles scored the next six points on a four-point play by Kirk and a jumper by Kauls to trim their deficit to 11, but that was as close as St. Olaf got for the remainder of the game.
The Johnnies took a 45-25 lead into the locker room after shooting 59.3 percent (16-for-27) from the field and holding the Oles to 31.0 percent (9-for-29) shooting in the opening 20 minutes. The Saint John's bench outscored St. Olaf on its own by a 30-25 margin in the half.
Kirk and Mertes combined for 29 points in the second half for the Oles, with Kirk pouring in 16 points on 4-for-5 from the field and 8-for-8 at the free-throw line, while Mertes connected on four of his five three-pointers after the break, including three in the span of 1:13 in the final three minutes.
St. Olaf travels to Duluth on Saturday, Feb. 10 for a 3 p.m. tip-off at the College of St. Scholastica.
