COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – The Bethel University men's basketball team could not hold off the hot shooting of Saint John's University dropping the conference opener 90-55 Wednesday evening. Granger Kingland and Matt Ambriz led all Royals with 12 points apiece.

Bethel returns home to the Robertson Center where they will take on Augsburg Saturday at 3 p.m. in MIAC play.

Saint John's (4-1, 1-0 MIAC) never trailed in Wednesday's contest, opening the game on a 16-6 run in the first 7:49 of play. The Royals (2-3, 0-1 MIAC) hung with the Johnnies through the opening minutes as Kingland opened up the scoring with a layup before knocking down a 3-pointer four minutes later. Zeke Carver-Bagley broke the Royals 3:50 scoring drought with a long ball to make it 16-9. Saint John's continued their hot shooting ways going 18-for-28 (64.3%) to take a 44-23 lead into the locker room. Kingland and Matt Ambriz combined for 14 of Bethel's 23 first half points.

In the second half, Bethel looked to find an answer to the Johnnies high powered offense but SJU continued to add to its margin via the long ball. A dangerous 7-for-8 shooting from 3-point range aided the Johnnies in reaching their largest lead of the game at 73-32 with 10:09 remaining. Zach Korba led the Bethel offense in the second half where he scored all nine of his points.