Saints lose back-and-forth thriller against St. Thomas, 90-86

By Ryan Day | rday@flagler.edu

Flagler guard D. J. Ferguson knows he and his Saints did everything they could to match the speed and physicality of a St. Thomas University team that he calls “a top team in the Florida Sun Conference.”

“They’ve got a great defense,” Ferguson said shortly after the visiting St. Thomas Bobcats (2-1) handed the Flagler Saints (1-1) their first loss of the season. “Their guards played very well. It’s not going to be every game that we’ll be playing a team that’s that fast and can take it up and down the court as quick as they did.” Ferguson ended the game with a team-high 6 assists.

The Saints came out of the gate looking as if they would be able to easily handle anything St. Thomas threw at them, going up 13-4 in the first few minutes. The Bobcats ended the first half with a 17-5 run that tied the game 42-42 at halftime.

It wasn’t until six minutes into the second half that St. Thomas made an offensive run that took the Saints from up by 12 at one point to down by as much as 15.

In the second half, the Bobcats outscored the Saints 18-2 in the first few minutes, but Flagler was able to counter that with a 21-8 run capping off with a Borstelmann triple with 44 seconds left, closing the gap to a score of 86-84. The Saints tried to get back in it, but St. Thomas was perfect in foul shots, going 4-for-4 in the final minute to close out the night.

“Basketball’s a game of runs,” explained Flagler forward Bryan Borstelmann who was honored shortly before the game for becoming the 17th player in Flagler Saints history to score 1,000 career points. “It’s going to be like that. We’re going to go up and then the other guys might go up and then we have a run and they have a run.”

Borstelmann scored a team-high 21 points with 7-of-14 shooting from the field and sinking 5-of-10 three-point attempts. Saints forward Brandon Johnson brought in a team-high 9 rebounds.

“These games are going to be close and we just need to stay in it and pull it out in the last few minutes,” Borstelmann said.

Flagler plays its next two games in Lakeland against Puerto Rico-Mayguez on Nov. 24th and against Florida Southern on Nov. 25th.