Saturday night Denver traveled to St. Paul, Minnesota to play the St. Thomas Tommies. The game featured the return of DU point guard DeAndre Craig from a concussion. Still, the first half looked like a repeat of Denver’s nine-game losing streak. However, the Pioneers (6-15, 0-6) stormed back from a 17-point first-half deficit to draw within one point of the Tommies with less than five minutes to go in the game. St. Thomas sunk shots and free throws down the stretch while DU went cold, final score 74-62.

The return of Craig seemed to improve the Pioneer offense flow as DU shot 50% in the first half (12-24). The Tommies responded by shooting 64% (16-25) in the half and buried 5-9 three-point attempts. First-place St. Thomas went into the break leading 44-24, following two free throws on a foul called on Josh Pickett and a technical on head coach Jeff Wulbrun for contesting the foul.

Wulbrun’s halftime outburst as time expired may have fueled Denver as the Pioneers came back over the next 15 minutes. Freshman Sebastian Akins pulled Denver within one point, 59-58, with 4:22 remaining in the game. St. Thomas started to hit shots and go to the line down the stretch as they rebuilt their lead back to 12 points with 1:13 remaining and that is how the game finished.

Denver continues to be haunted by weak defensive first halves. However, the return of DeAndre Craig resulted in a much more efficient offense and greater backcourt depth. Sebastian Akins and Nicholas Shogbonyo led Denver in scoring with 14 and 11 points respectively. Pedro Lopez-Sanvicente finished with 8 points and 5 rebounds. Pivot Kabba Fanta-Abdulai only played 14 minutes with 2 points and 5 rebounds.

Next up for Denver is a return home Thursday with a game against Oral Roberts at 7:00 pm MT at Hamilton Gym.