Men's Basketball 2/13/08 -- St. Thomas 72, Augsburg 60
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ST. PAUL, Minn. (2/13/08) -- Sophomore Sam Eicher scored a career-high 14 points off the bench and host University of St. Thomas secured a share of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference men's basketball title with Wednesday night's 72-60 win over visiting Augsburg College at Schoenecker Arena.
No. 17-ranked St. Thomas (20-3 overall, 16-2 MIAC) ran its season win streak to 10 and its conference home win streak to 32. The Tommies reached the 20-win mark for the sixth time in nine seasons as they posted a 30-8 advantage in bench scoring and had only nine turnovers.
Augsburg led 41-37 with 16:00 to go, but Lonnie Robinson scored eight to fuel an 18-6 run that put the Tommies ahead 55-47 with 5:07 to play. The Tommies made 12-of-15 free throws in the final 4:11 to pull away.
The Auggies (10-12 overall, 8-9 MIAC), who had a five-game winning streak halted, were plagued by foul trouble. Femi Solaja (SR, Cottage Grove, Minn./St. Paul Harding HS) had 16 points and nine rebounds (7-of-8 shooting) but played only 28 minutes before fouling out. Nate Alm (JR, Eden Prairie, Minn.) (7-of-8 shooting) had 14 of his 15 points in the first half but fouled out after playing just 25 minutes.
David Olson (JR, Lindstrom, Minn./Chisago Lakes HS) added 11 points and six assists for the Auggies, who shot 64 percent in the first half but 27 percent in the second half. Jon Cassens (SO, Prior Lake, Minn.) scored six points with four assists, and Justin Kozlowski * (SR, Wausau, Wis./Wausau Newman HS) had five assists to go with four points. Mitch Dice (SR, Savage, Minn./Bloomington Lutheran HS) pulled down nine rebounds to go with five points.
For the Tommies, B.J. Viau had 11 points and eight rebounds; Joe Scott and Tyler Nicolai each scored 10 points; Robinson had nine points and Al McCoy had eight points.
Augsburg returns to MIAC play on Saturday (2/16), hosting Concordia-Moorhead at 3 p.m. St. Thomas has a bye Saturday and plays at Concordia-Moorhead next Wednesday (2/20).
