MORRIS, Minn. – College basketball conference tournament season is here, and the upsets are already starting to pile up. Both Upper Midwest Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Tournament games on Wednesday night resulted in the lower seed winning on the road to advance to Saturday's championship game. Among them was the University of Northwestern, the No. 3 seed in the UMAC Tournament, who won its second game at the University of Minnesota Morris this season and avenged a home loss earlier this month. The 87-77 win, coupled with Bethany Lutheran's upset at North Central, means the Eagles will host the Vikings in the UMAC Championship game on Saturday afternoon, with the conference's automatic bid into the NCAA Division III National Tournament on the line.
Northwestern proved it was juiced up for the playoff tilt from the opening tip, opening up a 7-2 lead behind four points from
Elijah Burns (Grand Prairie, Texas/Roseville Area), two from
Kelton Vincent (Volga, S.D./Sioux Valley) and one from
Japheth Nyamari (Anoka, Minn./Anoka). A
Caden Stevens (Highlands Ranch, Colo./Mountain Vista) paint bucket made it 9-4, but Morris answered with six straight to take a 10-9 lead. Four consecutive Stevens points gave UNW a 13-10 edge, then a pair of
AJ Greene (Roseville, Minn./Concordia Academy) jump shots got it to 17-14.
A layup from
Lewis Wolbert (Milaca, Minn./Milaca) and two from Burns pushed the Eagles' lead to five at 23-18, then an 8-0 run moments later with baskets from Burns, Greene, Nyamari and
Soren Anderson (Perham, Minn./Perham) gave Northwestern its first double-digit lead at 31-20. A Greene layup, a three-point play by Wolbert and an Anderson layup kept the lead at 11, but the Cougars made a brief push before Vincent's layup in the final seconds made it 40-32 at halftime.
Nyamari looked like a man possessed early in the second half, scoring UNW's first eight points, including a four-point play, to give his team a 48-35 advantage. Another layup by Greene moments later made it a 10-3 run and the lead 15. The freshman trio of Wolbert, Stevens and
Noah Frazell (Waverly, Iowa/Waverly-Shell Rock) checked in and immediately scored nine points to make it 60-48 in favor of the visitors with 13:51 remaining, but seven-straight UMM points trimmed the deficit to five at the 12:01 mark.
Anderson ended the run with a tip-in, then Burns and Greene answered Morris buckets with scores of their own to keep the lead at seven with 9:17 left. A Nyamari three and a Wolbert layup got the lead back to 12 with under seven minutes to go, then two points apiece from Vincent, Wolbert and Greene made it 79-68 with the Cougars running out of time. Strong free throw shooting from Wolbert and Nyamari in the final two minutes put the 87-77 win on ice.
Nyamari led all scorers with 17 points, six rebounds and two steals. Wolbert put up 16 points, seven rebounds, two assists and two steals, while Burns chipped in 14 points, eight boards and three assists. Greene finished with 14 points and six rebounds, and Stevens logged nine points off the bench. Vincent tallied three steals and two assists to do his part.
Wednesday's win sets up a classic UMAC Championship game on Saturday afternoon between Northwestern and Bethany Lutheran. The two perennial heavyweights split the season series, with each team defending its home court. UNW's 2023-24 season ended at the hands of the Vikings in the UMAC Semifinals last year. Tip-off from the Ericksen Center is scheduled for 2:00 PM. If you can't make it to the game, tune into the Eagle Sports Network, an affiliate of the UMAC Sports Network.
