The regular season came to an end for the St. Thomas basketball teams on Saturday, with the women losing at Oral Roberts and the men defeating Omaha at home. Both squads now turn attentions to their respective Summit League Championship tournaments this coming week.

Tommies men 68, Omaha 53

A 68-53 defeat of Omaha earned the St. Thomas men’s basketball team a 22-8 overall regular season record and cemented the Tommies as the No. 2 team in the final Summit League regular-season standings with an 11-4 conference record heading into circuit’s postseason tournament next week.

Leading 31-28 at halftime, St. Thomas took control of the game after the break, outscoring Omaha (15-16 overall, 8-8 Summit) by 12 points in the second half. Nolan Minessale led all scorers with 20 points. Minessale was the Tommies’ lone double-digit scorer in the contest, though Ben Oosterban, Carter Bjerke, and Nick Janowski each logged nine points as Austin Herro tallied eight points to go with a game-high eight rebounds — seven of which came on the defensive end.

Next up for St. Thomas is the Summit League Championship playoffs, with the second-seeded Tommies first game against No. 7 South Dakota State (14-17, 7-9) scheduled for Thursday 25 minutes after the end of the first playoff game of the night, which starts at 6 p.m. An opening-round win puts UST into the semifinals on Saturday night, with the conference title game to take place at 8 p.m. Sunday.

Oral Roberts 67, Tommies women 52

The St. Thomas women (15-15 overall, 8-8 Summit) wrapped up a .500 regular season with a 67-52 loss at Oral Roberts. The Tommies battled back from an initial deficit to forge a 27-27 halftime tie, but could not keep pace with the Golden Eagles (15-4, 8-8) after the break.

Alyssa Sand was the lone St. Thomas player to hit double-digit scoring, recording a game-high 19 points. Mikayla Werner led the Tommies with six rebounds, but the visitors had no counter for Oral Roberts’ Kayten Donley, who logged 15 rebounds (12 defensive) with 12 points and five assists.

The two teams are slated to meet again in the first round of the Summit playoffs, scheduled for noon Friday in Sioux Falls, S.D., a win would propel St. Thomas into a semifinal matchup at noon Saturday. The Summit women’s title game is slated for 3 p.m. Sunday.

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