01/20/06

With the Saints' 77-67 victory over visiting Northwestern tonight, and a loss by MN-Morris at Bethany Lutheran, St. Scholastica finds themselves alone atop the UMAC standings.

Prior to tonight's games, Northwestern, Morris and St. Scholastica were all tied for first place in the standings at 3-2 but the pre-season favorite Saints now have the perch all to themselves.

Despite leading the Eagles for all but 31 seconds in the first half, the Saints only took a 35-32 lead into the intermission.

Over the opening minutes of the second half, the Saints began to stretch that lead until it reached 12 with 12:43 to play. The closest Northwestern would get the rest of the way was within 7 but the Saints repeatedly broke the full court pressure of the Eagles and opened their double-digit lead up again for the final 3 minutes.

Tonight was definitely Andy Schmitz' night for the Saints as he had a career-high 33 points including four 3-pointers and a perfect mark of 11 for 11 from the free throw line. Schmitz also got things done on the defensive end as he snuck away with 4 steals to lead the game.

William Maupins cleaned the glass for the Saints -- twice, literally -- as he grabbed 2 offensive and 10 defensive boards to lead all players with 12 for the night. He was also the game's assist leader with 6.

Josh Gosar had a good night for the Saints as he netted 12 points and snared 5 rebounds. His career rebounding total sits now at 484, only 16 shy of 500 and 12 short of #5 on the all-time rebounding list where Chris Rauschenfels sits with 496.

The Saints out-rebounded the Eagles 36-25 for a decided edge and finished the game perfect from the free throw line, 21 of 21. Both teams had about the same success from the field but the number of times the Eagles got only one look at the basket before having to turn around and play defense allowed the Saints to play from the lead. And when a team is perfect from the charity stripe, it's tough to overcome.