Men's Basketball -- St. Thomas 77, Augsburg 76
MIAC Playoff Semifinals



Minneapolis -- St. Thomas sophomore Joe Buri (So., St. Paul, Minn./Trinity HS) hit a three-point shot with 2:11 to play, giving the Tommies their first lead of the second half and notching a 77-76, come-from-behind victory over top-seed Augsburg College in a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference playoff semifinal game Thursday night at Augsburg's Si Melby Hall.

St. Thomas (18-7 overall), seeded fourth in the four-team playoff, advances to the MIAC playoff championship Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at No. 2-seed Gustavus (22-3), which beat St. Olaf (15-10) 60-54 in Thursday's other semifinal at St. Peter. The playoff champion will receive an automatic bid to the 48-team NCAA Division III National Tournament. Augsburg, conference regular-season champions, drops to 22-3 overall and must wait for a possible at-large bid to the tournament. Bids are announced Sunday evening.

Two of Augsburg's three losses came at the hands of St. Thomas this season. Buri, who scored 13 points in the game, gave the Tommies their only lead of the second half with the three-pointer. Buri scored the Tommies' last five points of the contest. Augsburg, which had led by five points on three separate occasions in the second half, missed on three opportunities to score in the final two minutes, turning the ball over twice.

Buri, who played 39 of the 40 minutes in the contest, was one of four Tommies to score in double figures. Tommy Fritz (Sr., Madison Lake, Minn./Mankato Loyola HS) led the Tommies with 19 points and nine rebounds., while Matt Arnold (Jr., Minnetonka, Minn./Hopkins HS) and Kip Sparby (So., Cold Spring, Minn./Rocori HS) each had 16 points and seven rebounds. All five St. Thomas starters played more than 37 minutes in the contest. Justin Wismer (So., Golden Valley, Minn.) led the Auggies with 15 points, while Neil Swanson (Sr., Osseo, Minn.) had 14 points, including four three-pointers. Devean George (Jr., Minneapolis, Minn./Benilde-St. Margaret HS) had 13 points and a team-high nine rebounds.

Augsburg took the lead at the 10-minute mark of the first half and led by as many as seven points, holding the lead until St. Thomas tied it at 59-59 with 12:09 left in the game. St. Thomas tied it twice more before Buri's three-pointer with 2:11 remaining.

Augsburg, making its fourth appearance in the MIAC playoffs, has yet to win a game in four attempts since the 1984-85 season. The Tommies are making their 12th appearance in the 14 years of the MIAC playoffs, their 11th in a row.

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Below are the individual stats for each team.

Name * Denotes starter	FG	3FG	FT	O-D-Reb	PF	PTs.	Ast.	TO	Blk.	Stl.	Min.
St. Thomas
*12 Sean Stephens	4-9	0-2	0-0	0-2-2	2	8	5	2	1	1	38:05
14 Andy Pilon	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2:32
*20 Joe Buri	6-17	1-5	0-0	2-2-4	1	13	5	3	0	2	39:05
22 Cory Schlagel	1-1	1-1	0-0	0-0-0	0	3	0	0	0	0	4:08
*34 Matt Arnold	7-12	0-2	2-2	3-4-7	3	16	2	4	0	1	37:28
*50 Tommy Fritz	7-10	0-0	5-5	3-6-9	3	19	2	1	0	5	38:23
*52 Kip Sparby	5-13	2-8	4-4	0-7-7	3	16	6	4	0	2	38:42
54 Teddy Swanson	1-1	0-0	0-0	1-1-2	0	2	0	0	0	0	1:37
Team Totals	31-63	4-18	11-11	10-24-34	12	77	20	14	1	11	200
Name * Denotes starter	FG	3FG	FT	O-D-Reb	PF	PTs	Ast	TO	Blk	Stl	Min
Augsburg
3  Jeoffrey Reed	4-11	0-2	0-0	1-4-5	0	8	4	1	0	2	25:49
22 Kevin Van Rossum	3-7	3-7	0-0	0-0-0	0	9	3	3	0	1	26
*24 Willie Fisher	1-4	0-0	0-0	0-0-0	3	2	2	0	0	0	14:11
31 Eric Herried	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2:42
*32 Justin Wismer	7-11	1-4	0-0	0-2-2	2	15	1	2	0	0	24:44
*40 Devean George	5-13	0-3	3-6	6-3-9	2	13	0	5	3	12	34:08
*42 Matt Lang	3-4	0-0	3-4	3-4-7	2	9	2	2	1	1	25:49
43 Jason Beckendorf	1-4	0-3	0-1	0-1-1	0	2	0	2	0	0	8:54
*44 Neil Swanson	5-7	4-6	0-0	0-4-4	1	14	2	1	0	1	17:49
52 Micah Watkins	1-2	0-0	0-0	1-2-3	2	2	0	0	1	0	13:46
55 Kris Long	1-1	0-0	0-0	0-0-0	3	2	0	0	0	0	6:08
Team Totals	31-64	8-25	6-11	13-22-35	15	76	14	16	5	6	200