Kuhse’s late basket lifts St. Mary’s
Tommy Kuhse drove the lane and converted an offbalance bucket off the glass with 1.8 seconds remaining to give St. Mary’s a 6664, comeback win over Northern Iowa on Thursday in a consolationround game of the Crossover Classic in Sioux Falls, S.D.
Kuhse, a senior guard who spent the past two seasons in mainly a complementary role to leading scorers Jordan Ford and Malik Fitts, had a gamehigh 19 points. Kuhse also had game highs in minutes (38), assists (five), blocks (three) and steals (three).
He helped the Gaels (11) overcome a 16point deficit in the second half.
“I think Tommy does what he feels like he needs to do to help us win,” head coach Randy Bennett said in his postgame Zoom news conference. “He took some shots, I was like, ‘No, no, no. Oh yeah, great shot.’ ”
Kuhse went 8for15 from the floor, including 3for5 from beyond the arc.
The Gaels lost 7356 to Memphis in their opener Wednesday and trailed the Panthers 4731 21⁄2 minutes into the second half Thursday.
St. Mary’s was down 6462 in the final minute. Matthias Tass hit a layup with 45 seconds to tie the game. On the ensuing possession, AJ Green missed a 3point try, setting up Kuhse’s gamewinning shot.
“I was proud of our kids,” Bennett said. “They were pretty resilient. They kept competing, kept playing. They just kept believing, and that’s what we have to do as a team.”
The Gaels did lose guard Logan Johnson to what Bennett termed a “bad ankle sprain.” Bennett said he doubted Johnson will be available when the Gaels face South Dakota State on Friday. The Jackrabbits dusted Utah State 8359 on Thursday.
USF 79, Towson 68: Jamaree Bouyea had 20 points and six assists, and Dzmitry Ryuny came off the bench to contribute 18 points and 10 rebounds as the Dons knocked off the Tigers in the “Bubbleville” event in Uncasville, Conn.
USF (11) rebounded from its 7668 loss to UMass Lowell on Wednesday.
“I feel like we were more like ourselves today,” USF head coach Todd Golden said, per the school’s website. Golden said
Wednesday’s loss “was combination of a bunch of different things and we never felt comfortable out there. That wasn’t the team we had seen in practice the last two months.”
Ryuny, a junior from Belarus, went 6for11 from long range. The Dons also got doublefigure scoring from Damari Milstead (11 points) and Samba Kane (10).
”I think this team is very talented but we are young and have not played with each other a lot,” Golden said. “If we can build on our continuity, we are going to play some really special basketball.”
The Dons will have to play some really special basketball to win Friday. They face fourthranked Virginia, which routed Towson 8954 on Wednesday.