St. Norbert Falls in Overtime at Grinnell

From Sports Information Director, February 9, 2013 | Men's Basketball
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

GRINNELL, Iowa - St. Norbert College couldn't hold a lead late in the second half and ended up dropping a heartbreaking 104-99 decision in overtime to Grinnell College in a key Midwest Conference game at Darby Gym.

St. Norbert (16-5, 13-3 MWC) fell into a first-place tie with Grinnell (16-4, 13-3) with two games remaining. The Pioneers hold the head-to-head tiebreaker for the No. 1 seeding in the MWC Tournament should the two teams finish the regular season deadlocked.

St. Norbert rallied from a 51-45 halftime deficit to climb back into the game in the second half. The Green Knights took their first lead with 10:29 left on a Jack Whalen basket, and eventually took a 73-67 lead with 5:54 to go on a dunk by Garrett Thorn.

Grinnell answered with a 9-1 run to take a 76-74 lead with 3:36 remaining on a Griffin Lentsch 3-pointer. The lead then switched hands six times in the remainder of regulation time. St. Norbert took an 82-81 lead with 1:10 remaining on a pair of Brandon Gries free throws, but Grinnell's Brian McManamy canned a 3-pointer - his only field goal of the game - with 37 seconds left for an 84-82 lead. St. Norbert's Austin Elliott missed a 3-pointer, but Whalen scooped up the rebound and put it back to knot the game at 84-84 with 10 seconds left. Lentsch's 3-pointer at the end of regulation was missed.

The Pioneers took control in overtime by being almost perfect in the extra five minutes. Grinnell made all five of its field-goal attempts, including three 3-pointers, and was 7-for-8 at the free-throw line. The Pioneers got a 3-pointer from Luke Yeager on the first possession of overtime, and never trailed in the overtime.

St. Norbert shot 56.7 percent (34-for-60) from the floor and were 29-for-33 (87.9 percent) at the free-throw line. Schwoerer led the Green Knights with 26 points. Whalen came off the bench to score 18 points, while Gries added 17 points.

Grinnell shot 42.9 percent (30-for-70) from the floor and was 13-for-42 (31 percent) from beyond the three-point arc. Yeager finished with 31 points, while Lentsch added 21 points.