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Men's basketball win over Hamline, 70-66 in overtime

Ryan Koehler
January 20, 2004

St. Olaf made a remarkable comeback Monday, January 19th to beat Hamline University. The Oles scored the last ten points in the final 1:30 of the game to tie the game at 60 points at the end of regulation. After five minutes of overtime play, St. Olaf came away with the win, 70-66.

In the first half it appeared that the Pipers would run away with the game, they dominated the game in almost every aspect. Hamline led the Oles 38-18 late in the half and led 40-24 at the break.

The second half was a different story. The Oles looked determined to chip away at the Pipers lead. Slowly but surely they were able to do that, but with :43 to play, they still trailed by eight. Then Jon Butala (FY West St. Paul, Minn.) hit a three pointer cutting the Piper lead to five. On the inbound, the Oles were attempting to foul, but Hamline turned the ball over which led to a Matt Schlenker (Sr. Rochester, Minn.) lay-up. This time the Pipers got the ball inbounds, and the Oles sent Hamlines big man to the line for a one-and-one. He missed the first shot as St. Olaf rebounded and found Ted Gonsior for a game tying three pointer with 4.6 seconds remaining. After Hamline inbounded the ball, their point guard was call for a double-dribble with 0.1 seconds remaining. St. Olaf ran a tip play, but on the inbound was called for a foul. Initially the referees sent a Hamline player to the line, but after some deliberating decided it was a ball out of bounds situation. The game went to overtime, where the Oles shot 3 of 4 from the field and were able to walk away with the win.

St. Olaf was led by Butala's 15 points on five-of-12 from the field. Nate Lund added 13 points and 11 rebounds. Matt Schlenker had 12 points while Ted Gonsior had 11.

The win puts St. Olaf in a four way tie for 7th place in the MIAC, and only one game out of 6th. Their record now stands at 3-7 in the MIAC and 6-9 overall. The next game for the Oles is Wednesday, January 21st the Concordia College comes to Skoglund Arena for a 7:30 p.m. tip-off.

Contact Le Ann Finger at 507-786-3834 or finger@stolaf.edu.