St Thomas Basketball at the inflection point after the quarterfinal win, as the Summit League semis near

st thomas basketball moved a step deeper into its first postseason as a program eligible for the Division I NCAA Tournament, beating South Dakota State 80-67 in the Summit League quarterfinals on Thursday night and advancing to the semifinals.

What Happens When St Thomas Basketball turns depth into a tournament edge?

St. Thomas completed a three-game sweep of South Dakota State this season by adding the quarterfinal result to two regular-season wins. In the process, the Tommies showed the kind of lineup balance that can matter in a bracket setting, led by a breakout performance from sophomore Ben Oosterbaan.

Oosterbaan, who averaged 6. 9 points per game during the season, scored more than 20 points for the first time in his college career. He finished with 23 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the field and 5-of-8 from three-point range, giving St. Thomas a scoring lift that changed the shape of the night.

First-team All-Summit League guard Nolan Minessale paired scoring with a broad stat line, posting 22 points, eight rebounds, and six assists while shooting 7-of-12 from the field and 4-of-6 from three. Nick Janowski added 10 points as the only other Tommies player in double figures, while the team’s perimeter efficiency stood out: St. Thomas shot 12-of-27 (44%) from three-point range in the win.

What If South Dakota State’s cold shooting becomes the defining lesson of the season?

For South Dakota State, the loss ended the season at 14-18, the program’s first losing year since 2009-10. The quarterfinal itself was described as competitive and entertaining, but ultimately deflating, with the Jackrabbits unable to sustain early success or find an answer when shots stopped falling.

SDSU opened with energy, engaging a crowd of 6, 641 and taking a 24-17 lead midway through the first half. But in the second half, the Jackrabbits endured an extended shooting drought, missing 12 of their first 13 shots after the break. Even as St. Thomas took control, SDSU kept playing with effort—crashing the boards, generating open looks, and cutting the margin to single digits more than once—yet the misses persisted.

The numbers captured the swing: South Dakota State finished 6-of-29 from three-point range, including 2-of-19 in the second half. The shot selection skewed heavily to the perimeter as the game went on—10 of 29 field goal attempts were threes in the first half, then 19 of 34 were threes in the second—yet the conversions did not follow. First-year coach Bryan Petersen said the team tried to find ways to “get downhill” in the second half, while acknowledging that it was not a major strength and emphasizing the team’s preference to play through the post and capitalize on inside-out threes.

Within the season’s broader arc, the loss reinforced a recurring theme: the team struggled to compensate when it went cold. The roster was not without contributors—Damon Wilkinson, Joe Sayler, Kalen Garry, Jaden Jackson, and Matthew Mors had moments, and Sayler and Wilkinson were noted as sophomores with potential to grow—but the group lacked a consistent “alpha” presence to take over key stretches. The result was a reliance on three-point shooting even when it was not delivering winning outcomes.

What If the Summit League semifinal stage tests both momentum and matchups?

Next, St. Thomas will face the winner of the Friday night quarterfinal between three-seed North Dakota and six-seed Denver, with the semifinal scheduled for Saturday night around 9 p. m. CT. The championship game is set for Sunday night around 8 p. m. CT on CBS Sports Network. (All times listed here are as announced in CT. )

Thursday’s quarterfinal offered a clear contrast in how games can tilt at this stage: one side generating efficient three-point offense and getting a career-high night from a role player, the other side creating looks but failing to cash them in. St. Thomas entered the next round with tangible indicators—44% from three, a 23-point surge from Oosterbaan, and Minessale’s all-around line—that it can win with multiple paths, not only a single scorer.

For SDSU, the immediate question becomes how to adapt after back-to-back one-and-done exits in the conference tournament, in an era described as shaped by the transfer portal and NIL dynamics. The quarterfinal showed effort and competitiveness, but also highlighted that energy alone cannot overcome prolonged shooting struggles at the most decisive moments.

As the bracket moves forward, st thomas basketball carries both the result and the underlying formula that produced it: depth, timely production beyond the headline names, and perimeter efficiency that held up when the game tightened.