St. Thomas opened its postseason run with an 18-point first-round win over Denver on Thursday night. They beat North Dakota by 16 points in the semifinals on Saturday night to advance to the title game.

Kendall Blue scored 21 points to help St. Thomas pull away for an 85-69 victory over North Dakota in the semifinals of the Summit League Championships on Saturday in Sioux Falls, S.D. The Tommies (24-9) advanced to the Summit League championship game for the first time.

There’s no way around it. South Dakota got shell-shocked in their 100-75 Summit League semifinal loss to Omaha. The Mavericks came out and punched the Coyotes in the mouth almost immediately, taking a 16-4 lead less than five minutes into the first half. After 13 minutes USD trailed by 27.