DULUTH, Minn. – The Gustavus men’s basketball team evened its conference record when they traveled to Duluth on Saturday to face off against St. Scholastica for the first time as a MIAC opponent. Gustavus took an 83-74 victory and improves to 7-6 overall and 4-4 in the conference.
The Gusties took their first lead of the game after a Benji Lundberg (Sr., Ellendale) three-pointer tilted the score up 11-10 four minutes into play. Gustavus jumped out to a 16-4 run and continued to hold the lead for the remainder of the second half. Lundberg rattled out eight points in the process and Kip Schetnan (Fy., Northfield) added on five more. At the 10:50 mark, Pete Lundquist (Sr., Rochester) dunked to cap off a 12 point Gustie advantage.
With six minutes left, the Saints picked up the pace limiting Gustavus to a 12-9 run as the Gusties led 44-32 at halftime.
Lundquist paced the offense with 11 points and Spencer Swanson (Fy., Waconia) posted five rebounds. As a team, Gustavus went 6-7 on the charity stripe and scored off of eight turnovers.
The Gusties brought the same intensity in the second half as Nolan Malo (Sr., Owatonna) opened the scoring with six points and Lundquist tallied on five more. Jordan Schommer (Jr., Merrifield), Kaleb Feahn (Sr., Waseca), and Schetnan combined for eight points before a timeout with 10 minutes remaining.
St. Scholastica struggled to narrow the double-digit deficit for the majority of the second half, but with eight minutes left the Saints posted six unanswered points to put the pressure on the Gusties.
Down to the wire, Feahn, Lundberg, Lundquist, and Jake Guse (Jr., Waseca) went 8-8 on free throws in the final minute and picked up the 83-74 conference win.
Gustavus shot 51.8 percent and went 18-24 from the free throw line. The Saints were limited to 39.7 percent shooting. The Gusties won the rebound battle 37-31. Lundquist led the team on the stat card totaling 22 points, eight rebounds, and five assists. Guse manned the defensive efforts with four blocks.
The Gusties are next in action when they host Carleton at 7:00 on January 19th.