Green Knights Roll Past Grinnell

From Sports Information Director, December 3, 2010 | Men's Basketball
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

DE PERE - St. Norbert College jumped out to a 27-point halftime lead and was never seriously threatened on its way to a 112-85 Midwest Conference win over Grinnell College on Connie Tilley Court at Schuldes Sports Center.

The Green Knights, ranked No. 8 in the D3hoops.com Top 25, improved to 4-0 overall and 1-0 in the MWC. Grinnell dropped to 4-1, 0-1.

St. Norbert led 19-4 coming out of the gate, finishing easy shots after breaking the Grinnell press while also defending the Pioneers with stingy man-to-man defense. The Green Knights made 25 of 30 (83.3 percent) of their field goals and harried Grinnell into 4-for-28 (14.3 percent) shooting from beyond the three-point arc in the first half to take a 67-40 lead into halftime.

Grinnell closed to within 20 at 86-66 with 10 minutes 13 seconds left in the game on a pair of 3-pointers by Griffin Lentsch, but a quick 6-0 run by the Green Knights pushed the cushion to 92-66 with 9:29 to go.

St. Norbert received a balanced scoring effort, with David Wipperfurth scoring 20 points - the third-straight game he's reached that plateau. Paul Appleton added 16 points off the bench, while Steve Papke had 15. Six different players scored in double figures for St. Norbert, which shot 42-for-63 (66.7 percent) from the floor and 27-for-33 (81.8 percent) at the free-throw line. The Green Knights also held a 47-33 rebounding advantage.

Grinnell, which shot 36.5 percent (31-for-85) from the floor and 11-for-50 (22 percent) from three-point range, was led by Jesse Ney's 14 points. Matt Skelly added 13 points and Aaron Levin 11 for the Pioneers.