By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
In one of those coincidences that sometimes happen in sports, both Northern Kentucky college programs opened postseason tournament play Tuesday with high-scoring wins that saw each of them put up 99 points in their final home games of the season.
Thomas More’s fourth-seeded Saints sent themselves off to the Great Midwest Athletic Conference semifinals Friday at Hillsdale College against the No. 8 seed Cedarville with a 99-92 victory over No. 5 seed Lake Erie. It’s the second straight year that the now Division II Saints (18-10, 12-8) have made it to the GMAC semifinals. Also on Tuesday, NKU beat Detroit Mercy, 99-75.
TMU has split with Cedarville this season, losing, 81-72, at Cedarville while winning, 88-82, three weeks ago at home.
A big reason for Thomas More moving on came from senior guard Casey George, the Pickerington, Ohio, product, who said Saturday that playing for Thomas More has been “a dream come true.” He kept the dream going with 15 first-half points that got the Saints off to a 50-33 halftime edge in a game where TMU would never trail.
Good thing he did as the Saints had to withstand a 59-point second half from Lake Erie (19-10, 12-8 GMAC). But right there with George in scoring the points Thomas More needed was 6-foot-8 junior Mitchell Rylee out of Covington Catholic who scored 31 points to go with his nine rebounds.
Both George and Rylee scored 18 second-half points to keep TMU in the lead.
While Thomas More led by as much as 20 – 62-42 – in the second half, Lake Erie kept making runs at the Saints, getting close with six minutes left before a pair of Rylee scores – one a dunk – lengthened the lead to 80-72. With 1:58 left, TMU had stretched the lead to 14 – 92-78.
George’s four-year senior guard mate, Wyatt Vieth out of St. Henry High School, added a team-high 11 rebounds for the Saints while redshirt freshman Kai Simpson added 14 points and junior Ryan Paris scored 10.
For the game, TMU shot 35-59 (59.3 percent) from the field and eight of 19 (42.1 percent) from three-point distance and 21 of 28 (75 percent) from the free throw line.
SCORING SUMMARY
LAKE ERIE 33 59—92
THOMAS MORE 50 49—99
Lake Erie (19-10, 12-8 GMAC): Johnson 10-14 3-6 1-1 24, Anderson 7-17 0-5 3-3 17, Piks 5-7 1-2 1-4 12, Leibacher 5-7 1-3 0-0 11, Bloom 2-5 1-2 2-2 7, Simons 3-7 1-3 4-4 11, Dames 3-5 0-0 2-2 8, Filippin 1-3 0-0 0-0 2, Swenson 0-3 0-1 0-0 0, Moore 0-1 0-1 0-2 0, Bays 0-3 0-2 0-0 0; TOTALS 36-72 7-25 13-18 92.
Thomas More (18-10, 12-8 GMAC): George 9-15 2-3 13-14 33, Rylee 12-15 0-0 7-12 31, Simpson 6-12 2-5 0-0 14, Vieth 2-5 1-4 0-0 5, Johnson 1-3 0-0 0-0 2, Paris 3-4 3-4 1-2 10, McCune 2-5 0-3 0-0 4, Browne 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Pouncy 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Crowe 0-0 0-0 0-0 0; TOTALS: 35-59 8-19 21-28—99.