St. Thomas home win streak ends at 7 in 81-80 loss to South Dakota State

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - The St. Thomas men’s basketball team is in year three of Division I play in the Summit League, and the Tommies took the preseason conference favorite to the last possession Thursday night at Schoenecker Arena.

St. Thomas climbed out of a 39-30 halftime deficit and used a 19-4 run to lead South Dakota State by as many as eight in the second half, but the Tommies couldn’t finish in an 81-80 loss. Raheem Anthony, who led the Tommies with 21 points, missed two free throws with 10 seconds to play and St. Thomas up 80-79. Zeke Mayo scored to give the Jackrabbits the lead with six seconds to play, and Anthony’s desperation 3-pointer at the buzzer hit the back iron.

"I thought our guys really for 40 minutes went toe-to-toe, down nine at half to take an eight point lead, I thought that showed a lot of resolve, a lot of toughness and togetherness. While we came up a little short, I couldn’t be prouder of how we competed," St. Thomas coach John Tauer said after the loss. "There’s a lot of bring things ahead in Year 3 of Division I, to play against South Dakota State like that, while losing stings, I have no doubt that our guys are going to learn from this and we’re going to keep working tirelessly to improve."

It’s the first home loss of the season for St. Thomas after seven straight wins. Earlier this year, the Tommies also took a top-10 team in Marquette down to the wire in a road loss.

"We beat South Dakota State here last year and I remember a friend of mine asking me when we first went Division I, how long do you think it will be before you beat one of those top teams? Will it be 10 years, eight years? I had no idea," Tauer said. "Part of the beauty of these guys is they don’t go into it thinking should we win or what would this win mean? They go in with a fearlessness and a competitive joy. Let’s be who we are and let’s see what happens."

It was a back-and-forth battle between the top two teams in the Summit League, and it was also the first conference loss of the season for St. Thomas. Mayo scored a game-high 25 points for South Dakota State, while Luke Appel and Will Kyle added 13 each.

Anthony led five Tommies in double figures. Drake Dobbs had 18, Kendall Blue had 17 and Brooks Allen added 11 points. St. Thomas entered the game having won nine of its last 10, and now has to move on from its first conference loss.

"Obviously as a competitor, losing a tough one like that, you always look back on plays that you’d love to have back. Unfortunately that’s not how the game works, that’s not how life works," Allen said. "As a leader of the team, I’ve got to keep us hungry, keep us striving to get better every day. It’s a long season, we’re not done yet, we’ll have a lot more to show you guys."

St. Thomas relied heavily on the 3-pointer in the loss. They shot 13-of-39 (33 percent) from the perimeter and 44 percent from the field for the game. The Tommies shot 9-of-27 from the field in the first half, and seven of the makes were from three-point range.

]The Tommies cut a nine-point halftime deficit to one four different times in the second half before taking a 75-67 lead with 3:54 to play. South Dakota State closed the game on a 14-5 run.

"We talk a lot about trust and togetherness. Being down nine, none of the guys tried to do it themselves," Tauer said. "That’s an area that if you had looked at us the first five or six games this year, we probably weren’t as good if we got down eight or 10. I don’t know that we’d chip away the way we did tonight."

St. Thomas (12-6, 2-1) is at Oral Roberts Saturday night.