Box Score Crestview Hills, Ky. - The men's basketball program at Thomas More defeated the Life Running Eagles by a score of 86-78 on Thursday (November 18) night. With the win the Saints improve to 3-1 on the season and 1-0 in Mid-South Conference play.
- Graduate student Luke Rudy (Cincinnati, Ohio/Oak Hills) got the scoring started for the Saints with a three-point field goal at the 18:11 to cut the Running Eagles lead to 6-3.
- First-year Wyatt Vieth (Hebron, Ky./ Saint Henry) started his big scoring night with a three with 14:28 remaining to cut Life's lead to 11-9.
- Redshirt Junior Ryan Batte (Cincinnati, Ohio/ Oak Hills) gave Thomas More their first lead of the night at 13-11 with 12:50 left in the first half.
- Vieth extended the Saints lead to nine on back-to-back three's at the 10:33 mark in the first half, making the score 22-13 Thomas More.
- Sophomore Noah Pack (Georgetown, Ohio/Georgetown) made a three-point field goal to extend the Saints lead back to five with just over four minutes on the clock in the first.
- Rudy would end the half with the way it started with a three to give Thomas More a 44-37 heading into the locker room.
- The Saints shot 14-25 (65%) in the first half.
- Batte gave the Saints the biggest lead of the night when he put them up by 11 after he grabbed an offensive rebound and put it back up to make the score to 48-37 at the 18:47 mark.
- First-year Casey George (Pickerington, Ohio//Pickerington) would score his first points of the night when the young guard used a hesitation move to get around the defender to put the Saints up by nine with 15:25 remaining in the game.
- Graduate student Garren Bertsch (Alexandria, Ky./Campbell County) would put a halt to the Running Eagles run with a layup to make the score 55-49 with 13:42 left in the second half.
- Sophomore Riley Haubner (Cincinnati, Ohio/ La Salle) made two free throws to grow Thomas More's lead back to eight with just over 10:30 remaining in the game.
- Vieth would go on a nine point scoring run of his own over the span of four minutes to give the Saints a 69-66 lead with just over six minutes remaining.
- Rudy made a crucial three-pointer with 3:41 remaining to give Thomas More a 77-73 lead.
- Vieth capped off his big scoring night with two free throws to bring the final score 86-78.
- Vieth had a career night scoring 26 points on 9-12 shooting from the field and was 4-6 from behind the arc and pulled down five boards.
- Batte posted a double-double scoring 20 points with 15 rebounds and also dished out a team high six assists.
- Rudy scored 15 points on the night and had with five three-pointers.
- The team as a whole shot 50% from the field and 37% from the three point line.
- The Saints out rebounded the Running Eagles 36-21.
- Thomas More shot 83.3% from the charity stripe.
Men's basketball will return to the Connor Convocation Center this Saturday (November 20), when they face off with Mid-South Conference foe Tenessee Southern at 2 p.m. ET.
