01/13/07

The Saints opened the game with a 10-0 run, and it got worse for Crown College after that.

The Purple Storm never threatened as St. Scholastica’s lead grew and grew as time passed in the Saturday afternoon conference match-up in the Reif Center, eventually succumbing 103-53 to the Saints in their second UMAC win of the season.

All eleven players on the bench played at least a dozen minutes in the game as the fast-paced transition game employed by the Saints resulted in countless breakaways. St. Scholastica scored 46 points in the paint on either lay-ups or dunks as well as scoring 36 off of Crown turnovers.

Five of the 11 reached double figures in scoring led by senior Will Maupins’ 19 points. Senior Derek Johnson added 17 including 5-of-9 from behind the 3-point line, sophomore Kyle Allen chipped in with a career-high 16 as did freshman Brian Schminski with 14, and finally, sophomore Jesse Tayler finished with 10 points and led the Saints in rebounds with a game-high seven.

Following their 10-0 start to the game, the Saints kept rolling behind 24-of-33 shooting (73%) as they raced out to a 56-17 half time lead.

As players poured off the Saints bench in the second half, Crown was able to pick up their offensive output but they still had major problems in slowing St. Scholastica down as the lead ballooned to 55 with 5:21 to play in the game.

The Saints dominated in all of the statistical categories, out rebounding the Storm 39 to 27, out shooting the visitors 57 percent to 38 percent, causing 26 turnovers while only committing 11, and registering 18 steals in the game led by Johnson’s five.