Denver men’s basketball (15-15, 8-7) closed-out the regular season schedule at Hamilton Gym in their last Summit League home game. It was Senior Day, too, with Jeremiah Burke, Logan Kinsey, Zane Nelson, Julius Rollins, Devin Carney, and Josh Lee taking their final bows. St Thomas, sitting in second place in conference was the perfect foil to gauge DU’s readiness for the Sioux Falls conference tournament in several weeks. Respond? Denver certainly did in the 82-80 win.

Gabe Oldham opened the DU scoring on a classic three point play. The Teams traded points and St Thomas took the lead, 9-8, at the five minute mark. St Thomas carried a 13-10 lead into the first officials’ timeout on a bucket from Ryan Dufault. Denver grew cold from the field, shooting a frigid 26% from the hardwood. Julius Rollins canned a tray at the midway mark, 17-15 DU. UST’s Nick Janowski worked the Denver baseline for two (of his 13 first half points) but Josh Lee countered and splashed a trey, 24-18. STU responded to a Rollins make from distance with one of their own, 27-22 with five minutes remaining. The Tommies reeled DU back in over the next several minutes and drew even at 35 with 1:30 remaining. St. Thomas ran clock and a layup from pesky Janowski gave the Tommies the halftime lead. The difference in the half was 40.6% shooting from DU to 53.3% for the Tommies. Plus, DU conceded Janowski the baseline and points in the paint.

Opening the second half, both teams began to hit their shots. Denver splashed a pair of threes but trailed 48-45 at the 5 minute break. The game grew more physical as St Thomas started hitting from the outside, building their biggest lead at nine, 54-45. A Rollins natural three closed the score to 57-52. Denver struggled to get stops and the game started to slip away, 64-55 with 10 minutes remaining. Denver finally started chipping away. At 8:41, Sean Wysocki scored a natural three to draw within four with 8:30 remaining. DU created some key stops and Carson Johnson buried a tray, cutting the lead to three with 7:00 minutes left. Ryan Dufault scored two consecutive buckets for STU and Rollins countered with a splash, 70-69 UST at 4:30. Two free throws from Logan Kinsey drew the game even at 4:00. At three minutes, Sean Wysocki went to the line and gave DU a 74-73 lead. UST buried a time-running out splash to seize the lead. The back and forth continued as Johnson scored a clutch basket at 1:15 to even the score 76-76. A free throw make and miss (1 of 2) put UST up by two with 20 seconds left. The play of the game was to follow as Rollins buried a clutch line-drive three from the top of the arc with 8.9 seconds left, 81-80 DU. A foul on a St Thomas drive led to two free throws by Logan Kinsey with 2.5 seconds. Kinsey hit the first and missed the second, giving UST a desperation heave that fell short, 82-80

Nick Janowski with 19 points and Ryan Dufault with 13 were the stars for the Tommies but UST was brutal from the line, going 8 of 20. A raucous crowd at Hamilton helped shake the visiting Tommies. Denver only had 8 turnovers in the physical tilt. Rollins was the star of the game with 26 points and 6 rebounds and, of course, the winning points from beyond the arc. Carson Johnson finished with 25 and two caroms. Denver went 17 of 20 from the line – the difference in the game.

The win pulled Denver to .500 on the season and +1 in conference play with one game remaining. DU finishes the regular season against ORU in Tulsa on Thursday at 6:00 pm MT.