Box Score

ST. PAUL – The Ericksen Center crowd got everything they paid for on Friday night as Northwestern College (Minn.) and the College of St. Scholastica battled for 40 minutes with the Eagles coming out two-point victors in the 70-68 final. NWC led by 10 with nine minutes and change left in the game, but the Saints didn't go away easily as the visitors temporarily regained the lead before a Wade Chitwood (Grinnell, Iowa/Grinnell) jumper solidified Northwestern's win in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) Game of the Week.



Despite earning a victory, Northwestern was actually the team looking up at St. Scholastica throughout most of the first half as the Saints owned control of the scoreboard for over 16 of the first 20 minutes. After NWC took slim two-point leads with their first and second made baskets of the game, CSS showed that it came to play with an eventual nine-point lead with 8:36 to go in the first half. The Saints' margin grew to 10 on two separate occasions down the stretch of that period before the Eagles finished the last 3:46 on an 11-5 run to close the gap to 36-33 at halftime.

That push continued into the second half as baskets by Daniel Petkau (Rib Lake, Wis./Rib lake) and Chitwood brought the lead back to Northwestern amidst what finished as a 17-5 spree with the Eagles owning a 39-36 advantage. After St. Scholastica's Brett Tester temporarily stopped the bleeding with a basket, NWC resumed its ball movement and scoring, with Matt Watnemo (Moorhead, Minnesota/Moorhead High School) draining a three-pointer to give the Eagles an eight-point buffer. Northwestern's lead hovered around six to 10 points until CSS turned on the heat down the stretch, cutting a 61-51 Eagles lead to 67-66 with less than three minutes to play. The St. Scholastica crowd was waiting for its opportunity to erupt, but NWC was relieved with three straight Tester misses at the free throw line. Jonah Dahlman finally gave the visiting fans what they wanted as his follow-up to a partially blocked shot by Tester put CSS up by a point.

Lance Westberg (River Falls, Wis./River Falls) made good on one of two free opportunities at the charity stripe to pull Northwestern even on the scoreboard before Chitwood's made basket from the elbow was the difference maker in the two-point nail biter. Dahlman got a good look from in front of his own bench in the Saints' final opportunity, but that shot went long and Petkau wrapped up the rebound and his team's win.

Northwestern made the same amount of baskets in each half -- 14 -- but took seven less shots in the second period to finish 28-61 for the game (45.9 percent). Westberg and Michael Carney (Ames, Iowa/Des Moines Christian) each had one-third of the six three-pointers that went through for the Eagles while Watnemo was finding success inside the arc. The rookie big man finished with a career-high 20 points, making eight of 12 attempts from the floor. Meanwhile, Westberg chipped in 15 points and Chitwood 14, none of which was bigger than his basket inside the last 90 seconds.

Ellis Libby (Bloomington, Minn./Jefferson)'s five assists put him over the 250 mark for his career, making him the 13th player in program history to join Northwestern's 250 Assist Club.

Derek Steve led St. Scholastica (5-12, 3-3 UMAC) with 14 points.

Now 12-5 overall, Northwestern heads into Saturday's matchup with Northland College tied for first place in the conference standings with North Central University (Minn.), a team that the Eagles have beaten twice this season who will host NWC again next Tuesday in Minneapolis. But the Purple and Gold's focus will be on the LumberJacks from Northland for now as a 5 p.m. Hoops Hysteria tip-off looms.