Box Score



ST. PAUL – The Northwestern College men's basketball team is off to the second-best start in school history after a bruising 97-68 victory over the University of Wisconsin-Superior on Wednesday night. The Eagles used strong outside shooting and 21 points off of Yellowjacket turnovers to win by their biggest point margin of the season.

Shortly after the two teams were tied at five points apiece, fans in the Ericksen Center gymnasium new tonight was going to be special as the Eagles raced out to a 23-7 lead following a 18-2 run that included four three-pointers and a put-back dunk. Wade Chitwood (Grinnell, Iowa/Grinnell), who went for a career-tying 31 points on the night, had a strong hand in the rally with five straight points before finishing the first half with 12. As soon as Superior's Aaron Corry briefly stopped the bleeding with a downtown shot of his own at 23-10, NWC's Ellis Libby (Bloomington, Minn./Jefferson) answered right back with a three of his own to boost the lead back to 15. A Lance Westberg (River Falls, Wis./River Falls) jumper then bumped the buffer up to 17 and Northwestern kept rolling with Chitwood hitting a trey before back-to-back threes from Michael Carney (Ames, Iowa/Des Moines Christian) gave the Eagles a 45-23 advantage with 3:25 to go in the first half. NWC went into the locker room with a 47-32 margin, having gone 9-14 from downtown in the half while adding 15 second chance points and a 27-16 rebounding edge.

Although the Eagles' three-point shooting cooled off in the second half, the extra effort didn't as the home team started to capitalize on the Yellowjackets' turnovers – nine to be specific – while Northwestern scored 17 points off of those mistakes. By the time three minutes had ticked off of the clock in Period 2, NWC found itself up by 21 after a 7-0 run. Superior briefly cut its deficit down into the teens until the Eagles entered the 20-plus point edge for good at the 14:15 mark, when Chitwood drained a three. Northwestern's biggest lead -- 31 points -- came with 2:10 left in the game before the scoreboard read 97-68 at the buzzer.

The Eagles finished with a 28-5 advantage in second chance points while the Northwestern bench was responsible for 27 points throughout the 40-minute contest. NWC out-rebounded the Jackets by 14, which included a 19-10 advantage on the offensive glass.

The Purple and Gold wrapped up the game 41-78 (52.6 percent) shooting, making 12 of 25 (48 percent) shots from downtown. Northwestern posted 24 assists to just six turnovers on the night.

Chitwood wrapped up his night 13-23 and 4-8 from long range, tying his career best performance in terms of points with last season's Dec. 9 game that came against Luther College. Speaking of career bests, Carney's 15 were a personal high for the freshman who is now averaging 10.4 points per game. Westberg went 6-11 to finish with 14 points, while Libby's line included nine points, eight rebounds, eight assists and four steals.

For Superior (2-3), Austin Cahill had 15 points while the 7-foot-0 Bronson Byrne was 6-10 for 12 points. The Eagles held Byrne to just three rebounds in the game.

Northwestern's focus quickly shifts ahead to Friday, when the Eagles will host Buena Vista University for a 7:30 p.m. matchup. In terms of the program's fast starts, only the 2005-2006 NWC squad has more consecutive wins to start the season as that group won its first six games en route to a 20-7 record. This year's Northwestern team will aim to tie that mark on Friday night. The Beavers from Buena Vista will come to campus with a 2-3 record.