Green Knights Claim Fifth Consecutive Outright MWC Championship

From Sports Information Director, February 18, 2017 | Men's Basketball
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

GREEN BAY - St. Norbert College captured its fifth consecutive outright Midwest Conference championship with a 73-62 win over Beloit College at UW-Green Bay's Kress Events Center.

The Green Knights (19-4, 16-2 MWC) became the first MWC team to win five consecutive outright men's basketball championships since Carleton College won six straight from the 1927-28 to 1932-33 seasons.

St. Norbert will host Lake Forest College at 7 p.m. Friday in the Midwest Conference Tournament at Kress Events Center. Ripon College will face Cornell College in the first semifinal at 5 p.m. Friday. The tournament championship game is scheduled for 3 p.m. Saturday.

The Green Knights and Buccaneers were tied at 37-37 with 16:36 left to play before St. Norbert went on a 16-2 run to take control. Ben Bobinski's layup at the 15:37 mark got things started, while D.J. DeValk's 3-pointer at 13:14 put the Green Knights ahead 44-37.

Connor Curtis had a conventional three-point play with 11:42 left for a 51-39 lead, and Taylor Penn's jumper closed out the run at 11:02 and a 53-39 edge.

St. Norbert would lead by 21 points at 64-43 with 7:26 left. Beloit would close to within 12 points with 3:04 to go but would get no closer.

The first half was back-and-forth with eight ties. Mike Gulve's half-court 3-pointer gave the Buccaneers a 30-28 halftime lead.

DeValk led St. Norbert with 20 points and became the 28th player in school history to go over the 1,000-point mark for his career. He became just the fourth St. Norbert player since 1975 to reach the 1,000-point mark during his junior year.

St. Norbert shot 47.6 percent (30-for-63) from the floor. Mitchell Reinthaler added 18 points and eight rebounds, while Bobinski and Curtis added 10 points apiece.

Beloit shot 47.2 percent (25-for-53) from the floor but was plagued by 19 turnovers. Gulve had a team-high 16 points, while Andrew Bremner added 14 points and 12 rebounds.