Box Score

ST. PAUL – The University of Northwestern nearly beat the College of St. Scholastica with a shooting percentage of less than 30, but it was the Saints who made a late run and hit a big last-minute bucket to beat the Eagles 51-50. Despite losing to St. Scholastica, who UNW will face in the first round of the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) Tournament on Wednesday, Northwestern won the UMAC regular season championship outright with the University of Minnesota Morris losing to Martin Luther College at the same time.

Northwestern, who clinched at least a share of the league crown on Friday night after stomping Northland College, led early in Saturday's matinee, using early points from Steven Willey (Fort Calhoun, Neb./Fort Calhoun) to go up by six in the first minutes of the game. St. Scholastica used a layup by Garret Pearson and a Tyler Rosenberger three-pointer to cut the Eagles' margin to one and tied the game at 20-20 when Jake Naslund scored in the paint with 3:45 to play in the initial period. The halftime difference was two points in Northwestern's favor after Naslund nailed another trey in the final 10 seconds of the half.

Naslund continued to hit in the second period, using back-to-back makes from downtown to give his team a 34-29 lead. Northwestern battled back to take a 41-40 advantage on Kyle Ooms (Hollandale, MN/Albert Lea High School)' layup, using an 11-0 run to go up 46-40 with 5:39 left to go. The lead improved to seven before St. Scholastica ended the game on a 9-1 run, turning the Eagles' buffer into a one-point lead on Steve Golobich's three-pointer in front of the Saints bench after Naslund's initial downtown offering came off the rim hard.

Eric Witthus (Chanhassen, Minn./Chanhassen) had a good look from three-point land for Northwestern in the Eagles' final attempt, but the junior's attempt went wide and the Saints earned a spot in the UMAC postseason and a rematch with Northwestern with the victory.

Northwestern's shooting performance, 10-30, was the Eagles' second-worst percentage of the season, surpassing just a 27 percent mark on November 30 against St. Olaf College. Willey was the only UNW player to make more than three baskets on the night as the team's lone senior went 5-10 from downtown for 22 points – on senior night. Ooms grabbed seven offensive rebounds en route to a career-best 16 overall boards for the sophomore.

Naslund finished 8-14 for 21 points for the Saints (11-14, 8-6 UMAC).

Wednesday's tipoff between Northwestern and St. Scholastica will be at 7:30 p.m. in the Ericksen Center with the winner earning a spot in Saturday evening's championship game. The Eagles enter the tournament as the top seed and have home court advantage as long as they remain in the tournament.