DE PERE, Wis. – The University of Northwestern-St. Paul put the left shoe on with an upset win over No. 3 St. Thomas on Friday, and on Saturday, fit the right foot with its own glass slipper after an 84-75 victory over Elmhurst College to advance to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament. Northwestern, who hadn't won an NCAA Tournament game in its four-year history prior to this weekend, will play next Friday, March 13, against East Texas Baptist University with a location expected to be announced on Sunday.
Northwestern started the night similar to the way it began Friday's contest against St. Thomas with the Eagles making five of their first six attempts.
Will Gisler (Stewartville, Minn./Stewartville) was finding early success against his defenders, working to gain access inside before draining an outside three-pointer to give UNW an early 10-4 advantage. Fouls were another early story; Northwestern's
Kyle Ooms (Hollandale, MN/Albert Lea High School) was whistled twice in the first 4:30 while Elmhurst's Erik Crittenden matched that number of infractions a few minutes later. Overall, the two teams were called for 11 combined fouls in the first eight minutes with that number increasing to 16 infractions before 10 minutes had ticked off the clock.
Similar to Friday, big man
Matt Watnemo (Moorhead, Minnesota/Moorhead High School) hit a three-pointer to start an Eagles run that put Northwestern ahead 25-16 with Gisler extending the lead to 10 on a free throw at 9:38.
Elmhurst's Will Nixon, the Bluejays' 6-7 go-to guy under the hoop, showed spurts of greatness with one of them coming down the stretch of the first half. Nixon collected multiple offensive rebounds, blocks, and points in a two-minute stretch to allow Elmhurst to get within a bucket with Northwestern's shooting percentage sinking along the way. A 12-2 Bluejays run tied it, and Peyton Wyatt gave his team its first lead of the game on a three-pointer on the next play. Meanwhile, UNW had gone cold on offense after Watnemo's three with the Eagles suffering through a 10-minute drought without a field goal.
Michael Carney (Ames, Iowa/Des Moines Christian) ended that dry spell with a layup at 2:20, keeping the Purple and Gold in the game.
Porter Morrell (Elk River, Minn./Home School) briefly gave Northwestern a one-point lead at 32-31 before Elmhurst regained the upper hand on free throws and a basket in the paint before the break.
The Eagles trailed Elmhurst 35-32 at halftime, but out-scored the Bluejays 16-3 in the first 10 minutes of the second period to establish some space. The fouls were continuing to mount for both teams with plenty of time remaining: Bryant Ackeman was subbed out with four fouls with nearly 17 minutes left, while Ooms,
Caleb Janson (Pierz, Minnesota/Pierz Healy), and Watnemo were in the danger zone for UNW.
If it hadn't shown already in the Bluejays' shooting, the fatigue from Elmhurst's triple-overtime win over St. Norbert on Friday was starting to appear on the glass. After a three-rebound performance on Friday, Ooms pulled down nine rebounds tonight. Northwestern began to focus its defensive attention to the paint, noticing that its opponent was short on several perimeter attempts. Elmhurst didn't make a field goal for almost 13 minutes to start the second half, going 0-13 in that span.
With Nixon joining Ackeman on the bench with four fouls, Northwestern was starting to heat up outside the arc.
Blake Van Maanen (Oshkosh, Wis./Valley Christian),
Cody Sprenger (Grey Eagle, Minn./Long Prairie-Grey Eagle), and Carney all drained threes from nearly the same spot in the far corner, with Carney's make being the 1,000th point of his career, as the Eagles had their largest lead of the night at 56-40.
Wyatt's three-ball with 6:57 left gave Elmhurst its first field goal of the half and kept the Bluejays still within reach, looking up at an 11-point deficit. Ooms answered Wyatt with a put-back lay-up though to push UNW's lead back to 13 at 58-45.
Elmhurst got as close as seven points in the final 90 seconds, but Northwestern made enough of their free throws in the final ticks to hold the Bluejays at bay in what finished as a 84-75 finish.
Both teams shot nearly matching 38 percent clips with Northwestern's 10 turnovers being two less than Elmhurst's 12. While the game was a physical one for UNW, 56 fouls were called between the two teams – many of which were touch calls -- translating to 63 combined free throw attempts. Morrell, UNW's hero with a buzzer-beater on Friday, had 14 opportunities alone at the charity stripe, making 11 of them to finish with a team-best 20 points. Carney added 14 points with both Gisler and Sprenger finishing with 13.
Kyle Wuest led Elmhurst with 21. Erik Crittenden contributed 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Bluejays, whose season ends at 20-8.
After preparing for Elmhurst overnight on Friday and into Saturday morning, Northwestern, whose record-setting win streak continues at 18, will have time to celebrate along with a few days to prepare for its sweet 16 game against East Texas Baptist, a Saturday winner over Clermont-Mudd-Scripps.
Stay tuned to unweagles.com for more information as it becomes available.
