I'm going to lump these two together because I haven't had time to get each one of them done. One was awful for us and the other was much better. I'll start with the St. Thomas game.
Our guys were really antsy for this one. It was a matchup that our guys were looking forward too. We were looking forward to it as a staff because St. Thomas has become what we want our program to be like. To have guys on your team that know the bulls-eye is on your back and still hit teams with daggers. Hopefully, we can be that way when this program takes off (hopefully by the end of the year).
St. Thomas got off to a quick start and never really looked back. We just come out flat and seemed unprepared for their quickness and physicalness for the first 15 minutes of the half. The last five minutes were great for us. We were penetrating like crazy and getting to the free throw line all the time. We ended up 15-17 from the line at the half and down four, after being down as many as 13.
The second half didn't exactly start the way we wanted with a pull-up jumper from Alex Healy. We then lost our heads. We got two technicals and an intentional foul in a matter of four minutes. We lost our composure and their lead went from six to 13 in those four minutes and it put us away. The game was very physical and we didn't adjust to the officiating at all (politically correct statement). The final was 80-63 and it wasn't pretty. At least our guys played hard until the final buzzer.
The Augsburg was a different story for us. We came of the St. Thomas loss and we ready for some revenge from an earlier game in the season, where we let one slip away. Augsburg always presents a challenge because they can put four guys on the four that are shooters and it makes it difficult to guard. In the first half they proved that point.
Augsburg went with the same starting lineup as they did the first time we played them, which was suprising since they had won four in row with a different one. I thought we matched up better against the four game winner. We came out hot from the floor. They couldn't match up to us and we were really penetrating into the paint any time we wanted (which is exactly how our offense works). The Auggies (I know, terrible mascot but true) tried a couple different defenses on us and none of them worked. We ended up leading by nine at the half, 50-41 in a defensive struggle.
The second half was truly a defensive struggle. Neither team shot over 30% from the floor. We were waiting and waiting for Augsburg to make a shot and it didn't happen. Part of it was because they were off and another part of it was our defense. Nick Carroll did a tremendous job on Jon Cassens, one of the best guards in the MIAC, in holding him to six points on 2-11 shooting. They only scored four points in the last 12 minutes of the half and 12 total. We didn't exactly light the world on fire either with 21 points but we did enough for a 20 point victory.
That was a big game for us for confidence and in the standings. We are now 10-6 and 6-5 in the conference. We now have more wins than Nelson has had in his previous two seasons. Hopefully, there is many more. We play MAC tomorrow at their place. We beat them by 11 the first time we played. We know they will play hard and execute.
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