Men's Basketball 2/3/03 -- St. Thomas 73, Augsburg 67 

BOXSCORE

ST. PAUL, Minn. (2/3/03) -- Junior Nick Schader scored 17 points off the bench and keyed two surges that led the University of St. Thomas men's basketball team to a 73-67 victory over visiting Augsburg College in Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play Monday night at UST's Schoenecker Arena.

Seniors Jimmy Sioris had 17 points and 10 rebounds, and Kevin Fitzgerald added 16 points and 10 rebounds for the Tommies (15-4 overall, 11-3 MIAC).

St. Thomas saw a 15-point halftime lead evapororate but used a game-closing 17-11 run to hold off the Auggies (9-11 overall, 6-9 MIAC) and complete a season sweep of their series.

UST, which outrebounded Augsburg 48-30, ran its MIAC home win streak to 20 and improved to 8-0 at home this season. The Toms remain in the conference lead by one-half game over Bethel (11-4) and one game over Gustavus (10-4) with six games to play.

Augsburg, which had a three-game winning streak halted, rallied from a 35-20 halftime deficit to tie the game with 5:09 to play. Guards Marcus Gholson (Jr., Gary, Ind./William A. Wirt HS) (23 points, 11 rebounds and four steals) and Yarzue Slowon (So., Crystal, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong HS) (23 points) scored 33 of the Auggies' 47 second-half points.

Schader scored seven points during a 16-0 late first-half run run that built a 35-19 Tommie lead. The Toms led 51-39 with 8:41 to go before Gholson scored 12 points to lead a 17-5 run that tied it at 56-56 with 5:09 to go.

But Schader scored six points to lead a 10-2 run that put UST ahead 66-58 with 1:38 left. The Toms made 7-of-8 free throws in the final 1:07 to hold off the Auggies.

St. Thomas plays Wednesday (2/5) at Concordia and Saturday (2/8) at Gustavus. With one more victory, the Tommies will reach the MIAC playoffs for the 15th time in 16 seasons.

Augsburg aims to remain in the thick of the conference postseason playoff race on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., playing at Bethel.