Box Score
Game Reaction: Lance Westberg

ST. PAUL -- After a hard fought game, the Northwestern College men's basketball team pulled off its fifth UMAC win of the 2011-2012 season over Crown College by a 67-61 final score on Tuesday night. The game was tied with 3:12 left on the clock, and the Eagles made seven of eight free throws in the final 1:39 to hold off the Storm.

Northwestern had an early lead, but the advantage was nothing convincing as Crown came back to lead by seven on two occasions within the first 11 minutes of play. Lance Westberg (River Falls, Wis./River Falls) and Wade Chitwood (Grinnell, Iowa/Grinnell) teamed up for a pair of three-pointers before a Westberg layup put the Eagles back in front 24-23. The Storm responded with two baskets to take a brief lead before Gabe Jefferson (Lincoln, Neb./Lincoln Southeast) and Westberg drained timely treys to send Northwestern into the locker room with a 33-30 halftime score.

A David Glover three-pointer to start the second period tied the game for Crown at 33-33 and a back-and-forth battle ensued. Shetler hit a lay-up, then Westberg did the same. Jefferson made a shot in the paint, then Roland Owczarek hit a jumper to knot the score at 46-46. Chitwood's three-pointer at the 4:47 mark gave the Eagles some space at 55-50 before Shetler and Andy Harrell teamed up for the Storm to tie the game again. Westberg hit a big three 30 seconds later and NWC found itself at the charity stripe soon thereafter before the scoreboard read 67-61 at the buzzer.

Northwestern only shot 41 percent, but a 52 percent mark from behind the three-point line helped the Eagles. Crown finished at 48 percent after making over half of its shots in the second half. While the Storm owned a 28-16 advantage in the paint, NWC took advantage of Crown's turnovers, scoring 30 points off of the visitors' mistakes.

Westberg and Chitwood each finished with a game-high 16 points on the night, with both nailing three shots from behind the three-point line. Tom Gisler (Stewartville, Minn./Stewartville) added 14 points on a 4-5 performance from downtown, while Jefferson chipped in seven points and nine rebounds.

Glover led Crown (4-15, 3-5 UMAC) with 14 points, while Shetler finished with 12 points.

Now 10-9 overall and 5-3 in conference play, the Eagles will hope to continue their momentum into Friday night when the College of St. Scholastica comes to the Ericksen Center. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.