Nau scores 22 off the bench, St. Thomas beats Western Michigan 77-71

SAINT PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Ben Nau scored 22 points off of the bench to help lead St. Thomas over Western Michigan 77-71 on Friday night.

Nau shot 6 for 8 from beyond the arc and 4 of 4 from the free-throw line for the Tommies (8-4). Kendall Blue scored 13 points and added six rebounds and three steals. Miles Barnstable shot 3 of 8 from the field, including 1 for 6 from 3-point range, and went 3 for 3 from the line to finish with 10 points.

The Broncos (3-6) were led in scoring by Javaughn Hannah, who finished with 17 points. Chansey Willis Jr. added 13 points, eight rebounds, five assists and three steals for Western Michigan. Markhi Strickland also had 13 points and six rebounds.

St. Thomas went into halftime leading Western Michigan 36-34. Nau scored nine points in the half. St. Thomas pulled off the victory after a 16-0 second-half run erased a seven-point deficit and gave them the lead at 52-43 with 13:21 left in the half. Nau scored 13 second-half points.

Both teams play Sunday. St. Thomas hosts Crown (MN) and Western Michigan goes on the road to play North Dakota State.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.