By Dan Weber NKyTribune sports reporter
Thomas More basketball is in a brand-new place as the Saints – both the men and women – finish their first season in the NCAA Division II and the Great Midwest Athletic Conference.
Brand-new? You bet. After years of figuring out what their path would be to get to the NAIA’s Final Four as a top-ranked regional host and guessing who would be the three teams the Saints would see in first-round postseason play, here’s where they are today.
Unable to play in the NCAA’s national postseason for two years as a new member having come over from the NAIA, both Thomas More teams can only look to the GMAC postseason as their national tourney this year. And maybe the women will get a first-round chance to host a game.
But after sweeping Trevecca Nazarene in a Thursday doubleheader, all they can do is hope they get a little help as the GMAC heads into its final weekend. Both teams are sitting just outside the top four, which is what it takes to host although mathematically, it looks like only the women have a chance.
“Tonight was Step 1, we took care of that,” said Jeff Hans, the Saints’ women’s coach, the all-time winningest women’s college basketball coach for his brilliant TMU career after his team’s 77-61 win over a Trevecca team that was two games ahead of TMU in the GMAC after a win over the Saints earlier in Nashville.
“We knew it was a big game,” said Reid Jolly, whose 17 points in what could be his second-last game at the Connor Convocation Center led the men to a 74-55 win over the visiting Trojans who were tied in the GMAC at 10-8 with TMU. “The conference tournament is really important for us now.”
It’s all the Saints have. But it’s not nothing. “We’ve got a lot on the line,” said senior Rachel Martin, whose 10 points combined with fellow senior Maggie Jones’ career-high of 20, helped a hot-shooting TMU team put Trojans away from the get-go.
A DOZEN THREES SHOOT SAINTS WOMEN TO BIG GMAC WIN
After three weeks on the road, “It’s good to be back home,” said TMU’s Hans. Certainly good for Thomas More’s shooters, who drilled 12 of 29 threes on the way to 77 points for their 16th win overall (12-7 in the GMAC).
“Where has she been?” one of Hans’ assistant coaches asked him as Jones, a 5-foot-6 senior from Simon Kenton, lit the place up, knocking down six of her eight three-point attempts.
“He’s pretty much always telling me to shoot it,” Jones said of Hans. Thursday, she did just that. “It felt great, especially to be doing it – and doing it at home.”
“Some other things have to happen,” said Martin, a 5-4 guard from Cincinnati Summit Country Day, for the Saints to be able to stay home for the first-round next week in the conference postseason. But that would be nice for a team that can’t go to nationals.
“Teams play better at home,” Hans said. No surprise there as the Saints pulled a 30-point turnaround after a 14-point loss at Trevecca.
One who has been playing at the top of her game is 6-foot sophomore Rylee Turner, a Newport Central Catholic alum, who double-doubled with 18 points, 10 rebounds and five assists now that the Saints are “running the offense through her,” Hans says. “Riley’s been playing really well.”
But it wasn’t all offense. TMU limited Trevecca to 23 of 63 (36.5 percent) shooting allowing a mere four for 18 (22.2 percent) from three-point range while forcing 12 turnovers.
Thomas More will give a regular season sendoff to its six seniors – Alex Smith, Kelly Brenner, Mattison Vickers and Hailie Morgan – in addition to Martin and Jones in Saturday’s Senior Day home finale against Ohio Dominican at 1 p.m.
“Our seniors have a great legacy,” Hans says of three straight NAIA Final Fours, one national championship and two national runner-up finishes the last three seasons.
WOMEN’S GAME SCORING SUMMARY
TREVECCA NAZARENE 13 19 14 15—61
THOMAS MORE 15 24 19 19—77
TREVECCA NAZARENE (17-9, 13-6 GMAC): Liu 1-3 0-0 0-0 2, Gambrell 5-14 0-2 4-5 14, L. Wilken 0-8 0-4 0-0 0, F. Wilken 4-11 2-6 0-0 10, Carter 7-16 1-3 2-3 17, Thomas 3-6 1-1 4-6 11, Vailes 1-2 0-1 0-0 2, Emelifeornwu 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Burgess 0-1 0-1 0-0 0, Patton 2-2 0-0 1-1 5; TOTALS: 23-63 4-18 11-15 61.
THOMAS MORE: Turner 7-14 1-3 3-3 18, Smith 2-8 1-3 2-2 7, Brenner 1-7 1-4 1-2 4, Jones 7-9 6-8 0-0 20, Martin 4-7 1-2 1-1 10, Leonard 4-8 1-3 0-0 9, Vickers 2-4 1-2 0-0 5, M. Hunt 0-2 0-1 2-2 2, Tandy 1-5 0-0 0-0 2, C. Hunt 0-1 0-1 0-0 0, Morgan 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Lillard 0-2 0-1 0-0 0, Baker 0-0 0-0 0-0 0; TOTALS: 28-68 12-29 9-10 77.
DEFENSE DOES IT FOR TMU MEN BUT IT MAY NOT BE ENOUGH
No way did Thomas More Coach Justin Ray think his Saints could hold Trevecca Nazarene’s high-powered offense to 55 points. Nope. Not a chance.
“I thought it was going to be a tighter game,” Ray said of the 19-point margin the Saints racked up Thursday. Nor did he think they would hold the GMAC’s leading scorer Jalen Page to seven points, 13.5 points under his league-leading 20.5 points-per-game average coming into this game. “We usually let people get their average.”
Not this game. Which is they key for TMU. The Saints will get their points. Reid Jolly with 17 was just above his 15.8 average. And freshman Nathan Dudukovich has been firing them in from far away, leading TMU in scoring the last five games although he scored just nine in this game.
He didn’t need to because 5-9 junior guard Jacob Jones listened to his coach. “Coach wanted me to be more aggressive,” said Jones, who scored in the first 30 seconds, then hit six more field goals by halftime on seven of eight shooting before intermission as TMU led 37-34.
“We need him to play like that,” Jolly said of Jones’ 21-point game-high effort. “We tried to come in here locked in.”
One other “locked-in Saint was 6-foot guard Casey George who recorded a double-double – 11 points and 10 rebounds – against a front line featuring 6-8, 240-pound Tommy Gonkhuyag, a talented freshman from Ulan Bator, Mongolia who finished with 15 points and six rebounds.
“We had a conversation about that — rebounding,” Ray said, with his guards, “remember to box out.”
Battling Gonkhuyag up front was sophomore Mitchell Rylee, also 6-8 but some 30 pounds lighter. The Covington Catholic alum did manage eight points with seven rebounds and a game-high four blocked shots.
While the TMU women can mathematically get into a tie for the No. 4 spot, it doesn’t look like the men can, with a maximum of 12 GMAC wins if they win Saturday’s home finale (3 p.m.) against Ohio Dominican while there are four league teams with 13 wins already.
For the men, Saturday will be a “Lifetime Achievement Day” for Jolly, a Campbell County alum from California, Ky., Ray said. “The guy’s got a million records.”
MEN’S GAME SCORING SUMMARY
TREVECCA NAZARENE 34 21—55
THOMAS MORE 37 37—74
TREVECCA NAZARENE (15-12, 10-9 (GMAC): Gankhuyag 7-12 0-0 1-1 15, Cannady 1-6 1-2 0-0 3, Brazil 4-8 1-3 1-3 10, Page 3-10 0-2 1-2 7, Lambesis 7-10 1-1 0-0 15, Blackston 1-3 1-3 0-0 3, Terry 1-1 0-0 0-0 2, Davenport 0-1 0-1 0-0 0, White 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Banks 0-2 0-0 0-1 0, Grier 0-0 0-0 0-0, Mulder 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Bass 0-1 0-1 0-0 0; TOTALS: 24-54 4-13 3-7 55.
THOMAS MORE (16-11, 11-8 GMAC): Jolly 7-12 0-0 3-4 17, Rylee 3-7 0-0 2-4 8, Jones 9-10 0-0 3-5 21, George 5-7 1-1 0-0 11, Dudukovich 4-7 1-4 0-0 9, Browne 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Vieth 0-2 0-0 0-0 0, Howard 2-7 2-5 2-2 8, Scott 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Lawal 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Geraci 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, McClain 0-1 0-0 0-0 0, Teten 0-1 0-1 0-0 0; TOTALS: 30-54 4-11 10-15 77.
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.