Um Yah Yah, St. Olaf Oles Heading to NCAA

The St. Olaf Oles defeated the St. Thomas Tommies in St. Paul Sunday afternoon to win the MIAC Tournament and win the automatic bid to the Division III NCAA Tournament next Friday.  The Oles defense was awesome in the 63-53 win.  They held the Tommies to 36 percent shooting in their own gym and were a plus four in turnovers for the game.  Over 1300 fans watched the contest.  Justin Pahl led St. Olaf with 20 points while going 9 for 9 from the free throw line and Junior point guard Sterling Nielsen added 16 points and was 11 of 12 from the charity stripe.  The 53 point total was the lowest this season for St. Thomas.  It's St. Olaf's first ever MIAC playoff championship in the 29 years of the format.  The tournament field will be announced Monday and St. Thomas might get an at-large berth.  They were the regular season MIAC champions and were ranked 12th in the nation.  St. Olaf was not rated even though they are 22-5 and are 4th in the nation in Division III scoring defense, holding opponents to 57.8 points per contest.