ST. PETER, Minn. – After defeating the fifth-ranked team in the country on Wednesday, Gustavus Adolphus College continued its recent run with a 10-point win over the University of Northwestern on Saturday afternoon. The Gusties used a strong first half to propel themselves to what turned out to be a 77-67 final score, marking Gustavus' fourth straight win while it was UNW's fourth consecutive loss.

It was Northwestern who had the biggest lead in Saturday's early goings, owning a 21-16 advantage after Kyle Ooms (Hollandale, MN/Albert Lea High School) and Michael Carney (Ames, Iowa/Des Moines Christian) made back-to-back baskets in the paint nine minutes into the game. With the Eagles still up by a bucket, the Golden Gusties made a run with forward Sergio Najera, who scored five of his team's seven consecutive points to give the home team a 29-22. Najera seemingly couldn't be stopped as the junior scored 11 of Gustavus' 13 points in a four-minute stretch in the first half to push the margin to nine, a buffer that stuck for the most part for the remaining minutes of the first period with UNW's baskets periodically cutting the lead to six or seven.

Northwestern, who made more than half of its overall attempts and went 4-10 from outside the three-point arc in the first 20 minutes, was only able to grab seven rebounds as Gustavus had made 17 of 23 first half baskets, leaving little opportunity for the Eagles to gain ground at the other end. A layup and two free throws from Caleb Janson (Pierz, Minnesota/Pierz Healy) hat UNW within five of the Gusties in the opening 90 seconds of Period 2, with a pair of Porter Morrell (Elk River, Minn./Home School) buckets getting the Purple-clad Eagles even closer at a three-point difference with 15:05 remaining. Northwestern was within a point of Gustavus multiple times as the clock dipped under 10 minutes, but Martin Feddersen sparked a 9-0 Gusties run down the stretch that gave host control of the game until the final buzzer sounded.

Gustavus (5-1) cooled off from its nearly 74 percent first half shooting rate, but still made over half of its attempts in the second round to finish at 65.9 percent for the game with 38 of its 77 points coming in the paint. While Northwestern hung with the Gusties and came close to knotting the score on several occasions in the final period, the Eagles made just nine of 29 shots, with four of them coming from downtown. UNW was able to tame its turnover rate, committing one less than Gustavus Adolophus at 12 while earning 13 second chance points.

Carney led a group of Eagles that had four players score in double figures, with both Kyle Ooms (Hollandale, MN/Albert Lea High School) and Will Gisler (Stewartville, Minn./Stewartville) grabbing seven rebounds in the process. Gustavus too had four score 10 or more, including Najera's 10 points on 7-10 shooting. The Gusties' starting lineup went a combined 23-33 (69.6 percent) from the field on the afternoon.

Northwestern continues to be in unfamiliar territory with a 1-7 record with the last time an Eagles team was still in search of its second win of the season after eight games coming in 1991-92. UNW will try to reverse course in the win-loss column again next Saturday, Dec. 13, when Northwestern takes to the road again for a matchup against Luther College at 4 p.m.