02/09/07

The Saints jumped out to a commanding 48-25 lead at the half, then held off a hard charging Crown College squad in the second half for an 85-75 win in St. Bonifacius, Minn., on Friday evening.

St. Scholastica (9-12, 6-4 UMAC) moved within a half game of third place Martin Luther College -- a Friday night loser at Minn.-Morris -- in the league standings with the win. Meanwhile, Presentation College, who entered the evening tied with the Saints in fourth place, dropped a home game to second place Bethany Lutheran College to put St. Scholastica in sole possession of the fourth and final UMAC postseason tournament spot. Crown (2-20, 0-12 UMAC) remains winless in the conference and in eighth place in the league standings.

Senior Derek Johnson led the Saints in the opening half with 18 points including 6-of-11 shooting from behind the 3-point line as the Saints shot a red-hot 59 percent from the field in opening their 23 point halftime lead.

Though Crown heated up over the final 20 minutes -- improving from only 37 percent shooting in the opening half to over 47 percent in the second -- the Saints were able to close out the win behind Will Maupins' game-high 21 points, and teammate Jesse Taylor's career-high 19 points (in only 15 minutes).

St. Scholastica out rebounded the Purple Storm by a whopping 46 to 17 margin. Maupins ripped down a season-high 14 to lead the Saints, and in doing so, recorded his seventh double-double of the season.

The Saints will try to keep their momentum going through the remainder of the weekend as they travel to conference-leading Northwestern College for a Saturday afternoon match-up at 5 p.m. on February 10.