ST. PAUL, Minn. – After getting the monkey of UMAC win No. 1 off its back on Wednesday, the University of Northwestern Men's Basketball team faced a tall task Saturday in the Ericksen Center—literally. The University of Minnesota Morris came to town sporting a pair of 6'7" (that one was for the kids) standouts averaging more than 16 points per game this season, and the Cougars as a team led the conference in rebounds per game. Northwestern, which countered with a lineup of four guards and a wing, was able to outdo Morris on the boards from start-to-finish and hand UMM its first conference loss of the season by an 88-79 score in front of a packed building.
Morris came ready to play, scoring the game's first five points before
Japheth Nyamari (Anoka, Minn./Anoka)—who was honored pregame after scoring his 1,000
th-career point Wednesday—put UNW in the scorebook with a jump shot. A
Will Foster (Eden Prairie, Minn./Eden Prairie) jumper and a
Ben Tschida (Andover, Minn./Legacy Christian Academy) three tied the game at seven, which set the table for a back-and-forth battle for much of the half.
AJ Greene (Roseville, Minn./Concordia Academy) scored five quick points off the bench, but after a
Noah Frazell (Waverly, Iowa/Waverly-Shell Rock) three-pointer, Minnesota Morris opened up a 20-15 lead with 10:35 remaining in the half.
Frazell bookended a 13-0 Eagles run, with
Jonah Burnett (Orr, Minn./North Woods) providing back-to-back threes in between that blew the roof off the Ericksen Center and put the hosts in control. The lead grew to double digits after a Foster jumper and a Frazell triple on consecutive trips, and an
Isaac Aune (New Brighton, Minn./Avail Academy) three made it 40-25 with 3:54 before the break. The Cougars were able to get the deficit back to single digits at the half when Carvin Fish, who scored 29 points in the game, answered a Tschida three with one of his own to make it 47-39.
Foster and Frazell scored on Northwestern's first two possessions of the second half, appearing to keep the good times rolling, but UMM started heating up and suddenly was within two points, not even four minutes in. Greene and
Jacob Hoefs (Highlands Ranch, Colo./Mountain Vista) got UNW back on track with some inside finishes, then Greene took his game back to his comfort zone—the mid-range jumper—for his real masterpiece. Still, the Cougars trailed by just four with 8:41 left in the game before the Eagles rattle off eight-in-a-row, jump-started by a Nyamari three-pointer. Minnesota Morris was able to again claw back within four with 2:41 to play, but Northwestern made the winning plays it needed to close it out. One more dagger of a pull-up jumper by Greene and a near-perfect home stretch at the charity stripe gave
Tim Grosz's squad a big, 88-79 win to put UNW in the thick of the UMAC race.
Frazell led the Eagles with 20 points, his third time eclipsing that mark this season. Greene followed with 18 in 20 minutes off the bench, adding six rebounds and a pair of assists. Foster chipped in 12 points, eight boards and seven assists, while Nyamari scored 11, pulled down six boards and dished out two assists. Hoefs and Tschida each scored nine points, with the latter adding six rebounds. The undersized Eagles won the battle on the boards, 36-32, the turnover margin, 12-6, and outshot the Cougars from the field, the arc and the line.
Northwestern will look to make it three conference wins in a row on Wednesday, January 21
st at UW-Superior.
