ELMHURST, Ill .- Northwestern men's basketball team traveled to Illinois for the first round of the NCAA DIII Tournament to take on the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens on Friday. It was a tough battle throughout the entire game, but Northwestern's buzzer beater attempt came up just short as they fell to the Sagehens 67-66, putting an end to their incredible season and their NCAA DIII Tournament run.
After a strong defensive possession that resulted in a turnover, the Eagles would find the first basket courtesy of
Noah Alm (Forest Lake, Minn./Forest Lake) who knocked down a deep two pointer. Northwestern was leading by three before Pomona-Pitzer found back-to-back threes to give them their first lead of the game. The Sagehens then had their own three point lead with 12:53 to go before UNW found a spark and exploded for a 13-2 run to give them an eight point lead with a little less than eight minutes left in the half.
The Eagles extended their lead to 11 before Pomona-Pitzer found a hot hand of their own and responded with an 8-0 run to cut their deficit down to three. Although Northwestern could not find a single point in the final four minutes of the half, they held onto a lead of three points, 34-31, heading into the lockers.
Both teams shot 40.6 percent overall but the big story for UNW was their ability to hit the long ball as they knocked down six three pointers, three of which came off the hand of
Caleb Waldeck (Newhall, Calif./Hart High). They also made sure to capitalize on the Sagehens' seven turnovers, scoring 10 points off of them.
Northwestern once again found the first bucket of the half as
Henry Fahnbulleh (Maple Grove, Minn./Maple Grove) hit a hook shot to put them up by five. Pomona-Pitzer responded with a three pointer before Waldeck would outscore the Sagehens 8-2 to put the Eagles up by eight. Pomona-Pitzer continued to fight back as they continued to close the gap before eventually finding their first lead, 52-51, in the second half with 10:31 to go. UNW battled back for the lead as they found a lead of five, thanks to back-to-back buckets from
Kyle Kaemingk (Woodbury, Minn./New Life Academy) with 5:23 to go.
The war continued as the Sagehens found a tying basket with 3:59 left on the clock. As the time dwindled, neither team could find a defining basket. It would be Pomona-Pitzer to find a three pointer with :47 seconds to go. Alm immediately took the ball and drove down the court to connect on a reverse layup to cut the lead down to one. The Sagehens would then milk the shot clock before putting up a shot that would be no good as the Eagles gathered the rebound and drove down the court. A buzzer beater shot would be put up, but it would not go in as Northwestern fell to Pomona-Pitzer 67-66 in the NCAA DIII Tournament.
The Eagles finished the game shooting 38.8 percent from the field and 35.7 percent from the three point line. They drained 10 three pointers in the contest but it was not enough to carry them across the finish line.
Leading the team in points was Waldeck who finished with 19 while hitting five triples and leading the team in rebounds with seven. Tied for second in scoring was Alm and Kaemingk who each had 12 points while Fahnbulleh and
Owen Boerema (Litchfield, Minn./Litchfield) both had eight.
Although Northwestern's season came to an end, it was still a memorable one as the team finished with a 22-7 record. They won the regular season title and ended up taking the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference Tournament, their 10th in the last 12 years. They will look to continue their dominance in the next season.
