Late Rally Lifts St. Norbert Past Carroll

From Sports Information Director, January 21, 2015 | Women's Basketball
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

WAUKESHA - St. Norbert College rallied from a 14-point deficit with just over 6 minutes remaining to pull out a pulsating 61-60 win over Carroll University in a key Midwest Conference game at Van Male Fieldhouse.

The Green Knights (13-2, 10-0 MWC) avoided falling into a tie for first place with the comeback, as Carroll dropped to 11-4, 8-2.

Carroll looked to be in full control when Malory Christenson's jumper with 6:11 remaining gave the Pioneers 56-42 advantage. St. Norbert responded by going on a 10-0 run over the next two minutes. Jill Kleiman got things started with a 3-pointer, and Tasha Giese followed with a layup at the 5:06 mark. Brianna Byrne then canned a 3-pointer with 4:37 left, and Heidi Van Sistine finished in the paint to cut it to 56-52 with 4:11 to go.

The Pioneers stopped the bleeding momentarily with a Julie Piech basket with 3:51 left, but Rachel Hagge cut the deficit to three points by burying a 3-pointer with 3:28 remaining. Giese converted a pair of free throws with 2:18 left to bring St. Norbert to within 58-57.

The Green Knights got a defensive stop and the pulled ahead for the first time since the early going when Kleiman canned a step-back 3-pointer as the shot clock expired for a 60-58 edge with 1:34 left. Carroll's Breann Maryanski converted a pair of free throws with 35 seconds left to knot the score at 60-60.

Giese then made the second of two free-throw attempts with 4.7 seconds left for a 61-60 edge. The Pioneers' Rachel Van Sluys then missed a good look as time expired to give the Green Knights an improbable win.

Carroll turned a 30-25 halftime lead into a 44-31 bulge with 14:04 to play. The Pioneers maintained their double-digit lead until St. Norbert began its comeback in the final six minutes.

Giese led St. Norbert with 17 points and seven rebounds. Van Sistine and Kleiman both had 13 points, while Byrne added 10. The Green Knights shot 52.3 percent (23-for-44) from the floor but were 8-for-17 (47.1 percent) at the free-throw line and committed 20 turnovers.

Carroll shot 42.9 percent (24-for-56) from the floor. Maryanski led the Pioneers with 14 points, while Chrstenson added 13 points and Piech 12.