Box Score Game Reaction: Head Coach Tim Grosz

ST. PAUL -- Despite out-rebounding their opponents and committing the same amount of turnovers, the Northwestern College men's basketball game lost a tough one on Friday night, falling to the University of Minnesota Morris 69-66 in the Ericksen Center. The Eagles, who lost a home conference game for the first time since Dec. 5, 2009, had a good look at a game-tying three pointer at the buzzer, but Ellis Libby (Bloomington, Minn./Jefferson)'s attempt fell short, and the Purple and Gold left the court with multiple missed opportunities.

Northwestern started off on the right foot, establishing a five-point lead on Brent Kettenacker (Buffalo, Minn./Buffalo)'s three-pointer four and a half minutes into the game. Morris battled back though, cutting the margin to one and then taking their own lead on Zach Meyer's layup three minutes later. When the Cougars went into the locker room with a 42-39 halftime advantage, fans had already experienced seven ties and seven lead changes.

Morris' buffer increased to nine on Derek Schmidt's jumper under the hoop and a pair of made free throws by Brodie Raymond gave the visitors their first double digit lead of the night before the Eagles went to work. Lance Westberg (River Falls, Wis./River Falls) hit a trey followed by a pair of made baskets from Wade Chitwood (Grinnell, Iowa/Grinnell), and NWC found itself within three at 58-55. Tom Gisler (Stewartville, Minn./Stewartville) made the front end of two free throws to pull the home team within one, but Morris bumped the lead to four on an Evan Reller and-one. Northwestern stayed in the game until the end, but it was the Cougars who left the gymnasium with a victory.

Minnesota Morris simply shot better, making 28 of 51 attempts (54.9 percent), while the Eagles struggled at 42 percent. While neither team shot well from long range, Northwestern's jump shooting, it's Achilles heel, wasn't there tonight. The paint wasn't a hospitable place for the Eagles either, as the Cougars out-scored NWC 38-16.

Chitwood's shooting was one of the few bright spots on Friday, as the junior went 9-15 for 23 points. Gabe Jefferson (Lincoln, Neb./Lincoln Southeast) worked for 11 points, making five of his six attempts to go with seven rebounds. Libby led NWC with nine rebounds and four assists.

Schmidt and Reller each finished with a team-best 13 points for Morris, who moves on to play at Crown on Saturday afternoon.

Northwestern slips to 6-7 overall and 1-1 UMAC with the loss, and will quickly turn its attention to Saturday's Hoops Hysteria game against Presentation College. The Eagles have traditionally responded well to occasionally dropping a conference contest, having not lost consecutive UMAC games since February of 2003. Tip-off is scheduled for 5 p.m. in the Ericksen Center.