Box Score

ST. PAUL – It took 39 minutes and 56 seconds to decide the game, but when it was all said and done, the Northwestern College men's basketball team ended on the short end of a 69-67 final score to Crown College. A last-second layup just before the buzzer rang gave Crown the final advantage the team would need to edge the Eagles.

NWC picked up an early lead after Lance Westberg (River Falls, Wis./River Falls) first gave Northwestern a score in the paint. One game removed from his career high performance, Wade Chitwood (Grinnell, Iowa/Grinnell) found the bottom of the net on the next two buckets, pushing the Eagles to a 6-3 lead at the 17:23 mark. The mini-run continued courtesy of more senior scoring as Tom Gisler (Stewartville, Minn./Stewartville) nailed back-to-back threes to give the home team a 12-3 score.

Crown rallied to bring the game back within two, and the exchange of offensive threats set the pace for the rest of the half. In the final 6:52 of the period, neither team led by more than four points with Crown gaining its second upper hand of the evening at the 4:37 mark. At half, NWC headed into the locker room with a 31-27 narrow positive margin.

The second-half featured a battle between two squads trying to gain control of game rhythm. The ebs and flows of scoring continued, as Crown picked up a four-point lead after an Anthony Diloreto layup made it in the basket, followed by Northwestern rallying to pick up the lead again nearly three minutes later thanks to a triple by Gisler. The visiting team earned its largest advantage for the first time with 6:41 remaining and again 33 seconds later, but the Eagles were not done as Chitwood converted on a three-pointer to pick up the lead yet again with 4:50 to play.

Heading into the final two minutes, a 67-67 tie was broken by an Ellis Libby (Bloomington, Minn./Jefferson) basket down low. Crown pushed the ball the length of the court just seven seconds later and DiLoreto scored his 19^th point of the game off a close-range shot, evening the score for the eighth time.

As the concluding 1:24 played out, the two squads exchanged missed shots before Northwestern had the ball with 12 seconds to play before it lost control of possession, leading to the Storm's ball and a make by Taylor Jones with just four seconds ticking off the clock. As the buzzer ran, the officials confirmed the shot good, leaving NWC just short.

The difference maker of the night proved to be Crown's presence down low as the Storm racked up 42 points in comparison to the Eagles' 16, thanks in part to DiLoreto's 19 points and 19 rebounds. NWC countered with a 46.7% from behind the arc, but it was not enough to sustain throughout the full 40 minutes of play.

Leading the scoring front for the Purple and Gold was Chitwood with 22 points, followed by Gisler with 15, and Michael Carney (Ames, Iowa/Des Moines Christian) who added 13 of his own on 5-7 shooting.

Before long, Northwestern (14-6, 7-2 UMAC) will find itself on the Ericksen Center for its final regular season home game as the team will host the University of Minnesota Morris on Saturday in a 5 p.m. evening contest. The Cougars currently stand in third place after an 86-70 win over North Central University Friday night.