Box Score

ST. PAUL -- Despite a 15-point difference between the two teams, Northwestern College's 74-59 victory over Crown College on Tuesday night was anything but a blowout. After a 40-40 halftime tie, the Eagles outscored the Storm 34-19, most of which came in the final five minutes of the game, to win both teams' Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) opening game.

Crown was the one who led early in the game, going up by as much as 10 points in the first 10 minutes. Wade Chitwood (Grinnell, Iowa/Grinnell) (Grinnell, Iowa/Grinnell) and Lance Westberg (River Falls, Wis./River Falls) (River Falls, Wis./River Falls) hit back-to-back three-pointers to bring NWC within four before David Glover responded with a pair of treys of his own for the Storm. Northwestern cut the lead to two on a Tom Gisler (Stewartville, Minn./Stewartville) (Stewartville, Minn./Stewartville) shot from downtown before eventually tying the score at 34-34 on a jumper by Chitwood with two minutes to play. While both teams shot very well in the initial period, the game got rather sloppy at times leading into a 40-40 deadlock at the half.

Each team owned early leads in the second period before a three from Westberg put the Eagles up 54-48 with 11:14 to play. NWC's lead hit 11 when Brian Lecheler (Abbotsford, Wis./Abbotsford) (Abbotsford, Wis./Abbotsford) stole the ball from Taylor Jones and completed the play with a lay-up at the 3:10 mark. Not long after, Northwestern was on its way to the team's third consecutive victory with the final score reading 74-59.

After nailing nearly 60 percent of its shots in the first half, which included an 8-12 mark from downtown, the Purple and Gold cooled down just slightly in the second period to settle at 52 percent for the game. Crown kept pace early, going 16-27 and 5-10 in the initial 20 minutes before being held to just 24 percent in the second half and a 41 percent mark for 40 minutes.

Chitwood was 7-14 for a team-best 21 points on the night to lead Northwestern, followed by 16 points from Nate Thompson (Fergus Falls, Minn./Hillcrest Lutheran Academy) (Fergus Falls, Minn./Hillcrest Lutheran Academy). Lecheler finished 5-7 from the field for 13 points to go with eight assists and six rebounds.

Crown was led by RJ Walker and Glover, who had 18 and 17, respectively.

With the victory, Northwestern improves to 7-5 overall and 1-0 in conference play. The Eagles will head west this weekend, facing the University of Minnesota, Morris and Presentation College on Friday and Saturday. Tip-off in Morris is set for 7:30 p.m. on Friday evening.