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67
Martin Luther MLC 6-12,2-6 UMAC
87
Winner Northwestern-St. Paul UNW 11-8,6-2 UMAC
Martin Luther MLC
6-12,2-6 UMAC
67
Final
87
Northwestern-St. Paul UNW
11-8,6-2 UMAC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Martin Luther MLC 31 36 67
Northwestern-St. Paul UNW 46 41 87
Wolbert Recap Pic

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | | Jess Poppen

Men's Basketball Gets Revenge With Dominant Home Win

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The way the University of Northwestern Men's Basketball team claimed sole possession of first place in the UMAC was poetic. The Eagles nearly led wire-to-wire against Martin Luther College on Saturday, eventually blowing out the team that handed them their first conference loss of the season (for the second year in a row). Northwestern seized control late in the first half and never looked back, rolling to an 87-67 win in front of its home crowd.
 
AJ Greene (Roseville, Minn./Concordia Academy) hit his patented fadeaway jump shot just 11 seconds into the game to open the scoring. A Japheth Nyamari (Anoka, Minn./Anoka) jumper and two Greene free throws put UNW back on top, 6-5, but MLC took the lead right back. It was at that point that the Eagles firmly planted themselves in the driver's seat, going on an 11-0 run featuring seven Nyamari points and two each from Greene and Elijah Burns (Grand Prairie, Texas/Roseville Area). A Knights three-pointer ended the streak, but Nyamari continued his heater and answered right back with a pull-up jumper to make it 19-10. Northwestern went back up by double digits after three-straight from Lewis Wolbert (Milaca, Minn./Milaca) made it 22-12, then a three by Caden Stevens (Highlands Ranch, Colo./Mountain Vista) and a driving layup by Burns extended the lead to 12.
 
Wolbert made a short jump shot on the following possession, then Soren Anderson (Perham, Minn./Perham) got involved with three consecutive points, putting UNW up, 32-17. A Kelton Vincent (Volga, S.D./Sioux Valley) triple and a Greene jumper stretched the Eagles' advantage to 18, and the lead ballooned to 20 (44-24) after paint buckets by Anderson and Noah Deedrick (Rochester, Minn./Century), and a three-pointer from Nyamari. Martin Luther was able to end the half strong, but still trailed 46-31 at the break despite a Wolbert floater with under a minute left.
 
Vincent buried another three to open the second half scoring and stretch his team's lead back to 18, then back-to-back Burns buckets in the post made it 53-34. After an MLC three, Northwestern scored eight in a row—a three-point play from Nyamari, followed by Burns making a layup and a three-pointer—to make it a 24-point game. Burns continued to cook, scoring down low after a 4-0 Knights run. Noah Frazell (Waverly, Iowa/Waverly-Shell Rock) got fouled on a three and made all three free throws, then scored three more on just one shot from behind the arc a few possessions later to climb to 71-46. Consecutive layups from Wolbert extended the lead to 27, then two Wolbert free throws and one by Burns pushed it to 28, the largest it would be all night, with 6:30 remaining.
 
An 8-0 surge by Martin Luther got it within 20, but it was too little, too late with only 3:53 to play. Five straight Frazell points made sure there was no chance of a comeback, and a tip-in by Burns moments later sent the crowd into a frenzy as he delivered the Chick-Fil-18 promotion with his 18th point. A three-pointer in the final minute for the visitors made the score final at 87-67 as the Eagles avenged one of their two conference losses.
 
UNW won the game in two areas: rebounding and free throws. The Eagles out-rebounded the Knights, 43-34, and went 19-24 at the charity stripe compared to MLC's 4-7. Burns led the way with a career-high 19 points and claimed his third-career double-double (all in the last month) with 10 rebounds (five offensive) as well. Nyamari took a break from his 30-point outing and settled for 17 and three assists. Freshmen guards Wolbert and Frazell scored 13 and 11, respectively, while Greene finished with eight points, five rebounds and four steals. Anderson pulled down a career-high 17 rebounds, while Stevens grabbed four boards and blocked four shots.
 
The now-first place Eagles will have another big test Wednesday night when they travel to UW-Superior, who is one of four teams that are one game behind UNW in the UMAC standings. Tip-off in Superior is slated for 5:30 PM and the game can be streamed on the UMAC Sports Network.
 
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