WALLA WALLA, Wash. – Matt Mounier's 19 points and Dominic Lippi's 18 weren't enough for Whitman College's men's basketball team Thursday evening as the 13th-ranked Tommies from the University of St. Thomas (Minn.) rallied from a halftime deficit to steal a 96-86 non-conference decision from the Missionaries on their home court at the Sherwood Athletics Center.

St. Thomas (2-0) overcame a pair of 14-point deficits, one in the first half and the other early in the second, to rally past Whitman (1-1) which had originally seized control of the game with a 14-5 run midway through first-half action.

The contest wasn't defined by scoring runs, but each team rattled off streaks that helped turn the tide.

The opening 10 minutes saw only a pair of early lead changes with St. Thomas edging ahead on the second of the two then holding on until the affair was tied at 26-26 on a slam by Evan Martin off a feed above the rim from Tochi Oti. Conner Nord hit only the first of two from the foul line on St. Thomas' next possession for a 27-26 lead, but the momentum swung back in the Missionaries favor quickly.

A pair of Lippi trey's started off a 19-4 run over the next 4 minutes and 21 seconds to lift Whitman to a 14-point cushion, 45-31, with 4:47 remaining in the half. The Tommies nicked away at the deficit approaching halftime but the Missionaries were still able to carry an eight-point advantage, 49-41, into the break.

Early moments of the second half remained tilted in the Missionaries' favor with another Lippi 3-pointer elevating the lead back to 14 at 59-45 with just over 16 minutes left to play. Four minutes later a Cortez Tillman jumper had cut St. Thomas' deficit to just eight but a Ryan Johnson foul sent Martin to the free-throw line where he coolly sank both chances to inch the Whitman advantage back to double-digits.

This time it was the Tommies' turn for a scoring streak. Over the next 4:59 they reeled off a 15-4 run to push ahead for the first time since the 9:24 mark of the first half. And this time the tide stayed turned as the home-standing Missionaries simply weren't able to hold back a Tommies' attack that at one point was shooting 75 percent from the floor in the half.

St. Thomas finished the game with a 28-20 advantage on the glass, not a terrible rebounding deficit for Whitman by any standards, but pulling down only one offensive rebound in the game eliminated second-chance opportunities, a debilitating element when chasing a team that 'settled' for shooting only 68 percent from the floor during the final 20 minutes.

Whitman was equal to the those figures over the opening 20 minutes, at 69 percent (20-for-29) from the floor, but getting off 11 fewer shots in the second half -- despite hitting 11 of 18 (61 percent) -- made answering St. Thomas' attack in the half a tough road to hoe.

Mounier and Lippi -- who was 4-for-6 from behind the arc -- weren't the only Missionaries to reach double-digits on the scoring sheet as Martin and Christian McDonald added 12 each and Oti scored 11.

St. Thomas was led by Marcus Alipate's game-high 21 points, with Taylor Montero (20 points), Tillman (18), Grant Shaeffer (16) and Nord (14) also reaching double-figures.

Whitman continues its early-season non-conference opponents schedule Saturday with a 3 p.m. home outing against the University of Rutgers-Newark at Sherwood Center.