Green Knights Rout Beloit as Lawrence Looms

From Sports Information Director, January 31, 2009 | Men's Basketball
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

DE PERE - St. Norbert College extended its winning streak to 15 games with an 84-63 Midwest Conference win over Beloit College at Schuldes Sports Center.

The Green Knights, now 16-1 overall and 10-0 in the MWC, are two games up on the rest of the conference with six games left to play. St. Norbert faces defending league champion Lawrence University at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in De Pere, the first meeting between the two schools this season. St. Norbert's 15-game winning streak is one game short of the school record of 16 set in 2002.

St. Norbert ground its way through a first half that saw Beloit shoot 60 percent from the floor. The Green Knights still managed to lead 36-31 with 1:46 left in the first half before closing the half on a pair of 3-pointers by Bryan Fleischmann and Kyle Johnsen to settle on a 42-32 halftime lead.

Mike Dowden hit a 3-pointer on St. Norbert's opening possession of the second half. Beloit's Derek Carrier hit a basket to cut it to 45-34, but St. Norbert would go on an 18-0 run to take a 63-34 lead with 13:38 left to play. Fleischmann, who canned six 3-pointers in the game for, had eight points in the run.

St. Norbert held two separate leads of 36 points, the last at 84-48 with 5:03 left. Beloit (3-16, 1-9) scored the last 15 points of the game.

Fleischmann tied a career high with 22 points, the third time he has reached that total. Jake Dietz had 13 points, while Dowden had 11 points for Green Knights who reached double figures.

St. Norbert shot 61.2 percent from the floor for the game, making 30 of 49 field goals. The Green Knights also shot 13 of 19 from beyond the three-point arc, a 68.4 percentage. St. Norbert is now shooting 50.1 percent from the floor on the season.

Beloit finished the game shooting 54.5 percent from the floor, making 24 of 44 shots. Andy Horton had 13 points, while Jacob Ewing had 10 points. Beloit outrebounded St. Norbert 21-20 but had 22 turnovers.