Box Score

ABERDEEN, S.D. -- The Northwestern College men's basketball team is hardly ready to stop riding its own wave.  With a 79-69 victory over Presentation College on Saturday evening, the Eagles won their 15th consecutive game dating back to Dec. 29, 2009 to break a program record.  NWC, who claimed its 22nd Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) regular season championship last weekend, capped off the league schedule with 12 straight conference victories.  The Eagles, who received a first-round bye in the conference tournament, will host the lowest remaining seed following next Tuesday's quarterfinal games on Thursday, Feb. 25 at 7:30 p.m.

Northwestern jumped out to an early 6-0 lead on three straight baskets to start the game after Stephen Hanson (Plymouth, Minn./Maranatha) (Plymouth, Minn./Maranatha Christian Academy), Brian Lecheler (Abbotsford, Wis./Abbotsford) (Abbotsford, Wis./Abbotsford) and Reid Berens (Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial) (Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial) all hit jumpers.  The Eagles never looked back in the first half despite numerous attempts by the Saints to tie the game.  Up by two points with 7:52 to play in the first half, NWC progressively built its lead to as much as 12 before the halftime horn sounded with the scoreboard reading 34-22 in the Eagles' favor.

The visitors' lead grew to 17 to start the second half before Presentation went on a run to cut the advantage to six on a pair of free throws by Eric May.  Northwestern brought the game back within a comfort zone soon thereafter, as a 3-pointer by Eric Garst (Mesa, Ariz./Red Mountain) (Mesa, Ariz./Red Mountan) gave the Eagles a 69-56 lead with just 2:08 remaining.  128 seconds later, the Eagles' long drive home back to St. Paul got a little easier as the UMAC champions won 79-69.

In addition to a 50.9 shooting percentage for the game, NWC improved upon its turnover mark from Friday's contest at Minnesota-Morris.  Saturday's performance in the Strode Center featured 17 team assists to 10 errors.  Presentation made 41 percent of its attempts, but couldn't overcome the big first half by Northwestern.

A quartet of Eagles in Hanson, Garst, Berens and Lecheler all scored in double figures.  Hanson and Garst each scored 18 points, while Berens followed with 14.  Garst, the team's starting point guard, was Northwestern's leader with eight rebounds and five assists while making five of his eight attempts from the floor.  In a 24-hour time span, Garst scored 34 points, hauled in 10 rebounds and dished out nine assists while committing just one turnover.

While the Eagles' current 15-game winning streak doesn't come close to SUNY Potsdam's NCAA Division III record of 60 consecutive victories (1985-1987), it does trump all other Northwestern teams, including that of the 1994-95 team who previously led the category with 14 straight wins.

NWC's opponent in the semifinal round of the UMAC postseason tournament will be determined late on Tuesday night {see the tournament bracket here). Stay tuned to nwceagles.com for all of the details surrounding Northwestern's postseason schedule.