Box Score MORRIS, Minn. – It took the full 40 minutes, but the University of Northwestern men's basketball team hung on to pick up a Saturday evening victory against the University of Minnesota Morris by a 80-74 margin. With the win, Northwestern took over sole possession of first-place in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC), a position shared with the Cougars heading into the matchup.

The game began with both squads exchanging scores and battling for the upper hand. The Eagles led 8-6 courtesy of a Michael Carney (Ames, Iowa/Des Moines Christian) triple with 17:07 left to play in the first half, but then were down two less than two minutes later.


A Steven Willey (Fort Calhoun, Neb./Fort Calhoun) triple led to a 19-16 upper hand for the visitors on the scoreboard, but then again two consecutive buckets for the Cougars would hand the lead possession back to the home team. The Eagles were finally able to stretch the upper hand out to five points with Matt Watnemo (Moorhead, Minnesota/Moorhead High School)'s triple at the 4:54 time stamp, which eventually led into a mini-run that saw UNW post the final eight points of the half. Heading into intermission, the scoreboard read 42-33 in favor of the Purple and Gold.

While the game continued to play out in favor of the Roseville-based team, the Cougars showed their resiliency and continued to chip into the lead security the Eagles had built up. With UMM trailing by just four with 12:15 left in regulation, a Watnemo trey closely followed by a Blake Van Maanen (Oshkosh, Wis./Valley Christian) three-ball once again ramped up the game in favor of UNW.

As was the theme of the contest, Minnesota Morris once again put itself in a position to contend for the win, bringing the contest within one point as the board read 65-64 with less than five minutes ticking off the clock. This time it was Will Gisler (Stewartville, Minn./Stewartville)'s turn to help his team as the freshman made a pair of shots from the foul line and Willey piggy-backed off his teammate's offensive success with a make of his own. The margin was back to five points, but the Cougars continued to fight back brought the game within a possession at 77-74 with 1:35 left to play.

Neither team was able to convert offensively in its next possessions, leading to a situation in which the Cougars had the ball with 34 seconds remaining. Gisler came down with the rebound off a missed UMM triple attempt, was fouled, and headed to the charity stripe for a 2-2 performance that secured the two-possession upper hand in favor of the Eagles.

As the final buzzer sounded, UNW had successfully completed the contest with an 80-74 victory. In all, Northwestern posted a 61.7 field goal rate in the contest, including a blistering 12-21 mark from beyond the arc.

Willey led all scorers with 21 points after going 9-11 from the floor, 3-5 from three-point land. Also joining him in double-digits were Gisler, who returned to the hardwood following a career-high performance Friday night, and Eric Witthus (Chanhassen, Minn./Chanhassen).

Northwestern (11-10 overall, 8-2 conference) currently holds the top spot in the league standings after a big weekend that saw the Eagles win out. UNW will now cap off the regular season with a stretch of four home games, beginning Friday, February 14 as Bethany Lutheran College travels to the Ericksen Center for a 7:30 p.m. game. Saturday will also feature home hoops action for Northwestern with Martin Luther College taking on the Eagles at 5 p.m. Both live stats and video streams will be available for the contests and can be found here.