Men's Basketball 1/3/05 -- St. Thomas 86, Augsburg 74

BOXSCORE

MINNEAPOLIS (1/3/05) -- Neal Anderson (Sr., Eden Prairie, Minn.) scored a season-high 25 points, hitting 9-of-12 from the field and 3-of-4 from beyond the three-point arc, leading his University of St. Thomas men's basketball team to a 86-74 triumph over host Augsburg College in a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game Monday night at Si Melby Hall.

Isaac Rosefelt (So., St. Paul, Minn./St. Thomas Academy HS) had a double-double with 11 points, 10 rebounds and four steals, one of four Tommies to score in double figures, as St. Thomas improved to 4-4 overall, 4-0 in MIAC play, snapping a three-game losing streak.

Despite a career-high 29 points and 11 rebounds for the first career double-double for Dan Graf (So., Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial HS), Augsburg dropped to 5-5 overall, 3-2 in MIAC play, snapping a three-game winning streak. Augsburg has won five of its last seven games.

A 14-3 run over a five-minute span in the first half, keyed by two 3-pointers by Bryan Schnettler (So., Sartell, Minn.) and three-pointers by Alex Weaver (Jr., Arden Hills, Minn./Mounds View HS) and Anderson, gave the Tommies the lead for good, 28-15 with 9:14 left in the opening stanza.

St. Thomas led 42-30 at intermission and extended the lead to as many as 22 points in the second half, 78-56 with 6:10 left. Augsburg could not trim the lead below double-digits in the entire second half.

As a team, St. Thomas converted 11 three-pointers in 17 attempts (64.7 percent), and shot 60.4 percent from the field overall (32-of-53). Meanwhile, Augsburg could manage just 40.6 percent shooting (28-of-69) from the field, including just 25.0 percent (6-of-24) from beyond the arc.

Also, a familiar recent foe -- free-throw shooting -- continued to plague the Auggies. Augsburg hit just 60 percent (12-of-20) from the charity stripe, hitting just 3-of-9 in the first half. St. Thomas converted 11-of-13 from the free-throw line (84.6 percent).

Schnettler hit 4-of-5 from beyond the arc and 6-of-7 from the field overall to score 18 points for the Tommies, while point guard Sean Sweeney (Jr., St. Paul, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall HS) had 15 points, seven assists and two steals.

Lucas Olson-Patterson (Sr., Minneapolis, Minn./Robbinsdale Cooper HS) joined Graf as the lone Auggies to score in double figures, as he added 19 points with four rebounds for his ninth double-figure scoring game of the season. Olson-Patterson has now scored in double figures in 17 straight games dating to last season, and in 29 of his 32 Augsburg games over the last two seasons.

Zeph Jones (Jr., Flint, Mich./Flint Central HS) had six points and six rebounds for the Auggies.

St. Thomas returns to action on Wednesday (1/5) with a 7:30 p.m. game at St. John's. Augsburg is back in action on Saturday (1/8), with a 3 p.m. game at Hamline.