Box Score
Game Reaction: Head Coach TIm Grosz

ST. PAUL -- After having one of its worst shooting performances of the 2011-2012 season on Friday evening, the Northwestern College men's basketball game would have loved to borrow a few shots from Saturday's 71-48 win over Martin Luther College in the previous day's three-point loss to Bethany Lutheran College. The Eagles made more baskets from behind the three-point arc in Saturday's first half than two-pointers to produce a lopsided 34-13 halftime lead.

Just about everything went right for the Purple and Gold in the first half as the Eagles scored 17 points off 10 Martin Luther turnovers while going 8-16 from downtown. Ethan Benton (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Linn-Mar) started Northwestern's hot streak with a trey in the initial 90 seconds before Wade Chitwood (Grinnell, Iowa/Grinnell) hit a two-point jumper to give the home team an early 8-2 advantage. Back-to-back threes from Chitwood and consecutive baskets by Tom Gisler (Stewartville, Minn./Stewartville) put the Eagles in control at 22-4 before nine minutes had ticked off the clock.

NWC went into the locker room with a 21-point buffer, but didn't settle into a rut in the second half. When the Knights threatened to cut the lead to under 20 points, Gisler and Aaron Reep (Springfield, Ohio/Emmanuel Christian) hit shots to push the margin back up. The Eagles' largest lead of the game came at the 14:09 mark of the second half, when a Chitwood three-pointer gave Northwestern a 26-point lead at 49-23. By the time the final horn sounded, the Eagles secured the No. 2 seed in next week's UMAC Tournament with a 71-48 victory.

Northwestern finished at 41 percent shooting for the game while wrapping up the night with a 13-31 performance from downtown. While the Knights owned a 30-14 advantage in points in the paint, Northwestern finished with a 22-9 tally in points off of turnovers.

Chitwood led all scorers with 17 points thanks to five three-pointers. Gisler added 16 points on 6-7 shooting while Jefferson finished the regular season with 10 points and four rebounds. The Eagles finished with 18 assists to seven turnovers, their seventh game of the season and fourth straight game in single digits for mistakes.

Galen Holzhueter went 7-20 to finish with a team-best 14 points for Martin Luther, who finishes the  season 2-22 (2-12 UMAC).

Northwestern, now 15-10 overall and 10-4 in conference play, will look ahead to Wednesday's semifinal against the third-ranked Saints, whom the second-seeded Eagles beat in the Ericksen Center on Feb. 3. NWC and St. Scholastica split their regular season contests, and Wednesday's game will determine who will advance to the UMAC Tournament Championship on Saturday evening to battle for the league's automatic qualifier into the NCAA Tournament. Tip-off time is scheduled for exactly 7:30 p.m., with no women's game beforehand.