SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – Senior guard Tommy Kuhse carried the young Gaels down the stretch with three tough baskets, including the game-winning bank shot with 1.8 seconds left to lead Saint Mary's past Northern Iowa 66-64 Thanksgiving night.
 
The Gaels (1-1) had a quick turnaround for a Thanksgiving night matchup with Northern Iowa in the Bad Boy Mowers Crossover Classic Thursday at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D. Saint Mary's played Wednesday against Memphis to open the season.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED:
In the second half, the Gaels rallied down the stretch after trailing by as many as 16. Saint Mary's cut the lead to 53-52 with under eight minutes to go in the game.  The Gaels came down and tied the game 62-62 after back-to-back baskets by Tommy Kuhse with 1:20 left.
 
After a timeout and a score by the Panthers, Matthias Tass came right back in the post for a nice basket to tie the game at 64-64. After Kuhse played good defense and forced a missed 3-pointer, Dan Fotu got the rebound and set up the last shot for the Gaels. Kuhse ran the clock down and made the off-balance bank shot in the key for the win.
 
Saint Mary's and Northern Iowa traded leads in the first 20 minutes with both teams going back and forth for five different lead changes. The Gaels led by as many as five points early on, but the Panthers took the lead into halftime 39-31.
 
QUOTABLE:

• "I think Tommy does what he feels like he needs to do to help us win. Tonight he took some tough shots and he will do that. He has great belief in hitting big shots. I think his role is a little more of a scorer this year. It's fun to see." – Randy Bennett
   
• "We are starting to settle down. I think we settled down in the second half. We did a good job defensively and we did a good job on A.J. Green, who is a great guard. I saw growth as a team maturity wise." – Randy Bennett
   
• "It was a big win for this young team. When you have young guys you have to be able to develop their confidence and a lot of guys got to do that tonight. I thought Jabe and Mitch really did that for us tonight. To be able to come back from being down and get a win out of it was really something special for our team and something to build on." – Tommy Kuhse
   
• "I was just trying to keep getting into the paint and let things come to me. Things opened up down the stretch a little bit and I was able to put them in." – Tommy Kuhse

 
NUMBERS TO KNOW:

• 11:  As a team the Gaels had 11 steals, including three steals each from Tommy Kuhse and Logan Johnson.
• 16: Minutes off the bench for freshman Mitchell Saxen, who scored five points and grabbed two rebounds.
• 8: Points freshman Jabe Mullins scored off the bench in 25 minutes of action.

 
UP NEXT:
Saint Mary's will face South Dakota State on Friday at 3:30 p.m. (PT) on ESPN2 in their final game of the Bad Boy Mowers Crossover Classic.