Cold First Half Dooms St. Norbert Men

From Sports Information Director, February 20, 2008 | Men's Basketball
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

APPLETON - St. Norbert College scored just four points in the final 12 minutes of the first half, a cold stretch that was too much to overcome in a 69-61 loss at Lawrence University at Alexander Gym.

The Green Knights close out the regular season 14-9 overall and 10-6 in the Midwest Conference, and will face the Vikings again in the semifinals of the MWC Tournament on Feb. 29. Lawrence, ranked 18th by D3hoops.com, improved to 19-2 and 14-1.

St. Norbert had a hot start to the game, taking leads of 15-8 and 17-10, the latter with 12:07 left in the first half. Lawrence slowly worked its way back, taking the lead at 20-19 with 4:30 left in the half on a Ben Rosenblatt 3-pointer. Rosenblatt hit another 3 on Lawrence's next possession, and went on to take a 31-21 lead at halftime.

The Vikings pushed the lead out to 43-25 with 15:25 left in the game before a quick 10-0 run by St. Norbert off five points by Bryan Fleischmann, a Dave Wipperfurth layup and a Mike Dowden 3-pointer cut it to 43-35 with 13:34 left.

St. Norbert hung in the game and got to within 48-43 with 4:35 left when Tom Katzfey made 1 of 2 free throws, but would get no closer until Tony Jandron's 3 with 1:09 left made it 63-58. Jandron hit another 3 with 28 seconds left to make it 65-61 but Lawrence hit its final four free throws to seal the win.

St. Norbert, who played without leading scorer Eric Bieniasz, was led by 14 points from Dowden and 12 by Fleischmann. The Green Knights had just five turnovers and shot 36.4 percent from the floor, making 24 of 66 shots. St. Norbert made 10 of 22 3-pointers.

Andy Hurley and Ryan Kroeger each had 14 points to lead Lawrence, which held a 42-31 rebounding advantage. The Vikings shot 48.1 percent from the floor, making 26 of 54 shots.