Montero, Saarela lead St. Thomas past Benedictine in DIII

Montero, Saarela lead St. Thomas past Benedictine in DIII

Published Mar. 19, 2016 10:37 p.m. ET

SALEM, Va. (AP) Taylor Montero scored 27 points and Ryan Saarela had 26 to lead St. Thomas of Minnesota to an 82-76 victory over Benedictine of Illinois on Saturday night in the Division III men's basketball national championship.

The Tommies (30-3) squandered most of a 12-point second-half lead, seeing it shrink to 73-71 with 1:34 to play, but Montero scored on a drive, Cortez Tillman followed an Eagles miss with a pair of free throws and Montero added an additional free throw, pushing the score to 78-71, and St. Thomas held on.

The Tommies, in their third Final Four in six years, won their second championship. They also won in 2011.

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Lucas Johnson led the Eagles with 21 points and 11 rebounds and John Dodson scored 13. Benedictine (31-1) was attempting to become the first Division III team to complete a perfect season since Wisconsin-Platteville in 1998 but came up one game short in its first appearance in the championship game.

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