St. Norbert Erases 15-Point Second-Half Deficit to Nip Lawrence

From Sports Information Director, February 3, 2016 | Men's Basketball
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

APPLETON - St. Norbert College trailed by 15 points early in the second half but found enough in reserve to marshal a 62-59 win over Lawrence University in a Midwest Conference game at Alexander Gym.

The Green Knights (17-2, 14-0 MWC), coupled with Ripon College's 75-65 win over Carroll University, moved into first place by three games over Carroll with the win with four games remaining. St. Norbert also claimed its 58th consecutive win over a Midwest Conference opponent.

Lawrence (8-11, 5-9) held a 25-23 lead with 3:52 left in the first half before going on an 11-0 run over the next 3:18. Only Dakota Oskey's jumper on St. Norbert's final possession of the first half put the intermission deficit at 36-25.

The Vikings took a 43-28 lead with 17:50 to go on Mitch Willer's layup. St. Norbert embarked on a 24-4 run over the next 8:53 to make a game of it. Tim Marshall got things started with a conventional three-point play and Terrence Garner followed with a layup. Lawrence hit a pair of free throws but Garner countered with his first 3-pointer at the season for a 45-36 score with 16:04 left.

D.J. DeValk connected on a hoop, followed by a pair of Mitchell Reinthaler free throws. Garner's layup was followed by a Lawrence basket by Jamie Nikitas, but Mitch Winter connected on a 3-pointer with 11:43 left for a 47-45 count. Another Garner basket, a 3-pointer by DeValk and a pair of free throws by Oskey gave St. Norbert a 52-47 lead with 8:57 to go.

Lawrence would regain a three-point lead on a 3-pointer and basket by Ben Peterson for a 56-53 edge with 6:09 to go. St. Norbert would eventually take a 60-56 lead after going on a 7-0 run over the next 5:04 after Garner split a pair of free throws with 1:05 remaining. Peterson canned another trifecta to bring the Vikings to within 60-59 with 58 seconds to go.

St. Norbert came up empty on its next possession. A 3-pointer by Peterson was off and following a rebound Nikitas' 3-pointer was around the rim and out with Ben Bobinski getting the rebound with 1.5 seconds left. Lawrence's Willer was slapped with a technical foul in addition to the common foul, but the Green Knights made only two of the four free throws.

Nikitas' three-quarter court three-point attempt at the buzzer was short and St. Norbert had finished its fifth MWC win of the season by three points or less.

St. Norbert shot 37.7 percent (20-for-53) from the floor and was a pedestrian 7-for-28 (25.0 percent) from beyond the three-point arc. Garner and DeValk each had 17 points to lead the Green Knights, who had a 43-28 rebounding advantage.

Nikitas finished with 24 points to lead the Vikings, who shot 21-for-55 (38.2 percent) from the floor overall but just 8-for-27 (29.6 percent) in the second half. Peterson added 10 points.