Box Score

ST. PAUL – A balanced, disciplined University of Northwestern men's basketball team regained a share of the lead in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) standings on Saturday afternoon with a 79-65 victory over Crown College. The Eagles out-scored the Storm 46-26 in the paint and made 55 percent of their shot attempts to hand Crown its first conference loss of the 2013-2014 season.



Saturday's first half was a back-and-forth battle that saw both teams hold slim leads. UNW owned a pair of four-point leads in the early goings, but after several offensive exchanges, Crown took its first lead of the game on Roland Owczarek's three-pointer at the 9:27 mark of the initial period. The Storm advantage lasted for a few minutes until Northwestern started to establish its presence under the hoop, leading to a 6-0 run that had the home team up 36-31 after Steven Willey (Fort Calhoun, Neb./Fort Calhoun)'s fast break layup. Willey hit a pair of three-pointers in the final minute and a half that sent UNW into the locker room with a 45-35 edge.

Northwestern continued to put on the pressure at the start of the second half as Kyle Ooms (Hollandale, MN/Albert Lea High School) and Will Gisler (Stewartville, Minn./Stewartville) found room in the lane as they increased the buffer to 18. Crown's response was quick outside shooting, but many of those attempts from Garrett Bigej and Bryce Williams didn't fall in the second 20 minutes as the Storm found themselves scrambling. Caleb Janson (Pierz, Minnesota/Pierz Healy)'s consecutive free throw makes with 10:33 left in the half gave Northwestern its largest lead of the game (19) at 65-46, which led to the Eagles using much of their 35-second shot clock down the stretch as the final horn got closer and closer. Crown head coach Luke Herbert surrendered with a line change substitution with just under 90 seconds remaining, and UNW held on to what would end up to be a 14-point victory.

Northwestern went 29 of 52 from the floor on the night, over a 20 percent improvement from the Eagles' 34.5 percent mark against Minnesota Morris on Friday. Willey was one of five UNW players to make at least half of his shots as the senior was 7-12 for a 16-point performance to go with seven rebounds and seven steals. Gisler added 15 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double, with both Caleb Janson (Pierz, Minnesota/Pierz Healy) and Matt Watnemo (Moorhead, Minnesota/Moorhead High School) both coming off the bench to score 12 and 10, respectively. The Eagles received 30 points from their bench on the night.

Williams led Crown (8-8, 4-1 UMAC) with 18 points, followed by 12 from Owczarek.

Now 7-9 overall (4-1 UMAC), Northwestern will take Sunday off before returning to the practice court on Monday to prepare for another UMAC weekend on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 31 and Feb. 1. The Eagles will head out on the road again on Friday, facing the College of St. Scholastica at 7:30 p.m. before wrapping up the road trip with a 5 p.m. game against Northland College on Saturday at 5 p.m.