SAINT PETER, Minn. — The Gustavus men's basketball team stayed perfect in MIAC play, defeating St. Scholastica 93-76 at Gus Young Court Monday night. The Gusties improve to 5-3 overall and 4-0 in conference play, while the Saints drop to 1-5 and 0-3 in the league.
St. Scholastica got the game's first basket, but once the Gusties were on the board they never looked back. Three Gusties scored five points in the opening minutes of play, as
Brady Kienitz,
Evan Wieker, and
Adam Biewen led Gustavus to a 29-16 run in the game's first 10 minutes.
Ashton Dingmann subbed in midway through the half, and kept the offense rolling, totaling nine points to send the teams to the locker room with a 49-37 Gustie lead.
After the half, it was
Brady Kienitz time, as the junior hit two three pointers to push the Gustie lead further. The Gusties forced five more turnovers in the second half, building their advantage to as many as 19, including the final, 93-76. Monday's game marks the third time the Gusties have reached 90 or more points, all three coming against conference opponents.
"First and foremost, wins are hard to come by, and I'm pleased that our guys earned a favorable outcome tonight," said Head Coach
Justin DeGrood. "We played really hard and we played with a really good sense of unity, but we did not play with our highest level of intelligence. The biggest thing that we need to takeaway from today's game is continuing down the path of discipline, and that showed itself tonight in our fouls. I think we did a much better job of that in the second half, so credit to our guys for balancing that out, but that's certainly something that we need to takeaway from this game. Offensively, I was really pleased with the poise that we played with. Scholastica threw a bunch of different defenses at us and our guys didn't seem to skip a beat, and really did a terrific job of valuing each possession and sharing the ball once again, and I think that's why we had such efficient numbers at the end of the game."
The Gusties shot 54 percent from the field, making nine threes and getting 21 points of St. Scholastica turnovers. The Gusties out-rebounded the Saints, winning the battle of the boards 37-23, including 11 on the offensive end.
Gustavus had five players in double figure scoring, led by
Spencer Swanson with 23. Swanson completed the double-double with 10 rebounds. Behind him was Biewen and
Wyatt Olson, each with 14.
Evan Wieker added 12 and Kienitz rounded out the top-five with 11.
The Gusties hit the road Wednesday, heading to Macalester to face the Scots at 7 p.m. in St. Paul.
