Late Rally Lifts St. Norbert Past Carroll

From Sports Information Director, January 8, 2011 | Men's Basketball
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

DE PERE - Chris Peterson's two free throws with 3.5 seconds left proved to be the difference as St. Norbert College claimed a 57-55 Midwest Conference win over Carroll University on Connie Tilley Court at Schuldes Sports Center.

The Green Knights, ranked No. 16 by D3hoops.com, improved to 9-2 overall and 5-1 in the MWC with the win. Carroll dropped to 4-6, 2-3.

Carroll took a 55-53 lead with 2 minutes 6 seconds remaining on a pair of free throws by Taylor Janssen. Both teams had an empty possession until Andy Fox's layup with 55 seconds left tied the game. Janssen was called for traveling with 34.5 seconds left to set up the game's final possession. John Taylor's 3-pointer with 6 seconds left was offline but Peterson grabbed the rebound and was fouled on the putback.

Carroll had a side out-of-bounds with 2.4 seconds left. Paul Grosshuesch got the inbounds pass on the baseline but lost the ball out of bounds while driving with 1.1 seconds left.

The rally capped off an uphill climb the entire game for the Green Knights. St. Norbert trailed by as much as eight points in the first half at 20-12, and grabbed their only lead of the first 20 minutes at 25-24. Carroll went on a 7-0 run to take a 31-25 lead with 1:11 left, but a pair of Fox free throws and a 3-pointer by Rob Durrett cut the deficit to 31-30.

Neither team led by more than three points in the second half, and there were 10 ties in the game.

David Wipperfurth led St. Norbert with 11 points. Fox had nine points, and Brandon Gries had nine points and five assists with no turnovers in 21 minutes off the bench. Steve Papke also grabbed 11 rebounds. The Green Knights shot just 40.4 percent (19-for-47) from the floor but did hold a 34-24 rebounding advantage.

Carroll's lone player in double figures was Grosshuesch with 14 points. The Pioneers shot 39 percent (16-for-41) from the floor but were 20-for-23 (87.0 percent) at the free-throw line.