The Saint John’s University basketball team defeated Sacchettificio Toscano 87-63 on Friday, May 14 in Italy to complete its exhibition games with a 2-1 record.
SJU was led by junior Aaron Burtzel (Cold Spring, Minn./Rocori) with 17 points and eight rebounds, including 12 first-half points. Junior Nermin Hujdurovic (Tuzla, Bosnia/Medical) had 16 points and four rebounds. Fellow junior Sam Blank (Rollingstone, Minn./Winona Cotter) added nine points, while sophomore Bennett Vathing (Plymouth, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong), sophomore Aaron Barmore (Bloomington, Minn./Jefferson) and junior Chris Schwartz (Sioux Falls, S.D./Lincoln) each collected five rebounds. Sophomore Garrett Bassett (Eagan, Minn.) scored the team’s first six points of the game to give the Johnnies an early lead. All 20 players played in the game, with 17 players scoring.
After trailing 18-17 after one quarter, the Johnnies opened the second quarter with an 8-0 run to take the lead for good. SJU lead 48-33 at halftime. The Johnnies only made two three-pointers in the win and were 13-of-26 from the free throw line.
Earlier on Friday, the travel party visited the city of Lucca. The rest of the tour includes a trip to Florence on Saturday and a stay in Rome on Sunday and Monday. The team returns to Minnesota on Tuesday.