MANKATO, Minn. - After a 32-point home loss to Augsburg on Monday, the University of Northwestern Men's Basketball team was eager to quickly turn the page on non-conference play and begin UMAC competition on Wednesday night. Its opponent in the conference opener just so happened to be the last UMAC team UNW had played, way back in March when the Eagles surrendered a 21-point lead to Bethany Lutheran in the UMAC Tournament Championship game, eventually losing in overtime. Unfortunately for Northwestern, Wednesday's contest shared a similar timeline, as
Tim Grosz's squad built a 16-point lead that was ultimately overtaken in the final minute and again in the final second, giving the Vikings a 70-69 win and dropping the Eagles to 2-11 on the season.
The scoreboard in the opening minutes would lead you to believe you were watching a football game, as BLC opened up a quick, 7-0 lead before both teams went ice cold. UNW finally scored its first point 7:53 into the game on a three-pointer by
Ben Tschida (Andover, Minn./Legacy Christian Academy), which would ultimately spark a 23-3 explosion over the next 7:37 to put Northwestern ahead, 23-10.
Jonah Burnett (Orr, Minn./North Woods) led the way with seven points in the big run, including an acrobatic shot in the paint, as seven different Eagles scored. The remaining 4:30 in the first half were more of a back-and-forth affair, but a pair of threes helped Bethany pull within five points in the final minute before
Will Foster's (Eden Prairie, Minn./Eden Prairie) turnaround jumper made it a 30-23 score at the break.
The first half's slow start was not repeated in the second frame, as both teams scored on its opening possession. Four different Eagles shared the team's first four field goals of the stanza, with Tschida putting an exclamation point on the start with another trey to give UNW a 42-29 advantage. The Vikings were able to trim the deficit to 10 with a pair of buckets, but
AJ Greene (Roseville, Minn./Concordia Academy) began to heat up, making back-to-back jumpers against Bethany Lutheran's zone and dishing a dime to Foster. A jumper from Nyamari with 11:48 to play gave Northwestern its largest lead of the night at 50-34, but as is the case so often in BLC's North Gymnasium, the hosts had some magic left in them.
A 7-0 run over the next two minutes got the Vikings within single digits, but a pair of Tschida triples and another Nyamari jumper appeared to stifle the defending champs and push the lead back to 13. Before you knew it, Bethany had already cut the lead to seven, but made the crucial mistake of fouling free-throw sniper
Noah Frazell (Waverly, Iowa/Waverly-Shell Rock) on a three-pointer, who calmly sunk all three with 6:16 remaining. Greene made another clutch jumper and had another nice assist to Burnett to keep the lead at double digits, but once again, BLC kept pushing. A 13-2 run by the hosts, including a momentum-changing dunk, suddenly gave them a 68-67 lead with 46 seconds left.
UNW got a couple of good looks on its next possession, but was relegated to fouling after neither fell. The Vikings missed both foul shots, giving the Eagles another chance to take the lead back. Greene found his favorite spot in the mid-range after an offensive rebound and buried it to put his team back in front by one with 7.1 seconds remaining, but a well-executed play out of a timeout gave Bethany Lutheran a pair of free throws with 0.8 seconds on the clock. Max Briggs made both, and Northwestern's Hail Mary pass attempt fell incomplete, resulting in a crushing, 70-69 loss to open the conference slate.
Tschida was outstanding off the bench with 14 points and eight rebounds, connecting on four of his five three-point attempts. Greene did a little of everything scoring 12 points, collecting nine boards and dishing out five assists. Burnett matched Greene's 12 points and pulled down five rebounds, while Nyamari finished with 11 points. Hoefs, battling foul trouble in just 24 minutes, tallied eight points and seven boards.
Northwestern will once again have to turn around rather quickly, as another daunting opponent awaits. The Eagles will visit UMAC-favorite North Central on Saturday, January 10
th at 3:00 PM.
