ST. PAUL, Minn. – Going into the halftime locker room on Saturday versus Martin Luther College, the University of Northwestern Men's Basketball team trailed by a point in a must-win game for its UMAC Tournament hopes. The Eagles were shooting just 46.4% from the field, 21.4% from three and 25% from the free throw line in eight attempts. Whatever Head Coach
Tim Grosz said in that locker room clearly landed with his team, as Northwestern turned it on in the second half and defeated the Knights by an 81-60 score to cap off a Hoops Hysteria sweep of Martin Luther.
The Eagles did begin the game with some momentum despite a heartbreaking loss to Bethany Lutheran less than 24 hours prior.
Jeremiah LaVelle (Otsego, Minn./Maranatha Christian Academy) drilled back-to-back threes to open the scoring and give UNW a 6-2 lead early on.
Micah Pocernich (Cromwell, Minn./Cromwell-Wright) knocked down a mid-range jumper on the following possession to make it 8-4, Eagles.
Caleb Hoilien (Minneapolis, Minn./Hope Academy) then got involved, scoring down low on back-to-back trips to give Northwestern a 12-6 edge. The Eagles continued to hammer the Knights inside, as the ensuing two possessions resulted in buckets for big men
Andrew Koehler (Scandia, Minn./Chisago Lakes) and
Elijah Burns (Grand Prairie, Texas/Roseville Area). Burns scored again a couple minutes later after Koehler tracked down an offensive board and found his fellow big man cutting to the rim, which was quickly followed by another Koehler dime to a cutting
Ryan Schneider (Longmont, Colo./Longmont) to give the Eagles a 20-10 lead.
Burns stayed aggressive, scoring three straight UNW points to keep the lead at 10 for a moment, but the Knights rattled off an 8-0 run to trim the deficit to 23-21. Freshman
AJ Greene (Roseville, Minn./Concordia Academy) made an acrobatic, cutting layup to stop the bleeding for a moment, but MLC scored the next four points to even the score at 25.
Henry Fahnbulleh (Maple Grove, Minn./Maple Grove) put Northwestern back in after putting back an offensive rebound, and the next possession, Hoilien converted an and-one to push the lead to four. The teams traded threes the next three possessions, then a floater with under a minute left gave Martin Luther a 34-33 edge at the break.
The Eagles came out hot in the second half, scoring the first seven points to snatch the lead back, five of which belonged to Hoilien. The Knights, however, punched back, going on an 8-0 run to reclaim the lead. From that point on, it was all Northwestern. After a pair of Nyamari free throws, Hoilien put back an offensive board. The following possession, Nyamari connected from deep to put UNW ahead, 47-42. MLC scored on their next trip, but the Eagles turned the game into a track meet. Pocernich jumped a pass and took it all the way in for a layup to begin a 9-0 run that featured two fast-break euro step layups by Hoilien and an and-one by Nyamari. The 9-0 spurt was also part of a 16-2 stretch in favor of Northwestern, firmly putting the momentum in its favor.
Martin Luther was able to climb back within single digits with 8:46 left, but UNW once again slammed the door shut, going on a 6-0 run to push the lead to 15 at 68-53. Hoilien's second half takeover was not finished, as the senior pulled off a dream shake that would make Hakeem Olajuwon proud after a monster block by Fahnbulleh, and laid in an alley-oop from
Kelton Vincent (Volga, S.D./Sioux Valley) on a baseline out of bounds pass to give him a season-high of 28 points.
Peter Norby (Maple Grove, Minn./Maple Grove) closed out the scoring with a corner three-pointer to give Northwestern a convincing, 81-60 win in front of a filled-to-the-brim Ericksen Center. The Eagles out-scored their counterparts 48-26 in the final 20 minutes.
Hoilien's 28 points and four rebounds were the highlight of the day as he sparked the second half onslaught. He was joined in double figures by fellow senior Pocernich, who finished with 11 and four boards, and LaVelle's 10 and five. Burns added nine points off the bench, while Nyamari contributed eight. Koehler pulled down 11 rebounds and dished out a team-high three assists.
The win puts Northwestern back at .500 in conference play at 6-6 and 14-9 overall, and more importantly, keeps its postseason hopes alive. The Eagles currently sit in a tie with Minnesota Morris, who they host next Friday at the Ericksen Center, and trail Crown and North Central by one game for the final two spots in the UMAC Tournament. The aforementioned next game with Morris, whom UNW defeated earlier in the season, is scheduled for 7:15 PM Friday night, after the conclusion of the women's game.
