ST. PAUL, Minn. - What a homecoming it was for
Lance Westberg. The 2013 University of Northwestern Men's Basketball alum donned the purple and gold for the first time in the Ericksen Center since February 23rd, 2013 when he helped lead the Eagles to a UMAC Tournament Championship win over Bethany Lutheran. That night, his 23 points earned him Tournament MVP honors. Thirteen years and change later, Westberg was back in the Ericksen Center for his first home game as head coach of UNW, replacing his former coach, Tim Grosz, who hung it up after 26 legendary seasons in April. Northwestern welcomed Lakeland University to the Ericksen Center for Friday's home opener, and put on a show for the local crowd, which included many of Westberg's former teammates. UNW survived a late scare to win 78-74, and give Westberg his first win as head coach of the Eagles.
Lakeland got off to a hot start, taking an early 9-2 lead. An 8-2 run by Northwestern, including three-pointers from
Blake Dalluge (Rogers, Minn./Rogers) and
Isaac Aune (New Brighton, Minn./Avail Academy), brought UNW within a point, and a
Brody Skates (Lake Geneva, Wis./Badger) triple evened the score at 19. After the Muskies regained a six-point edge, the hosts went on an 8-0 tear to take their first lead since 2-0. A 12-0 run later in the half, sparked by another Dalluge three and seven points from
AJ Greene (Roseville, Minn./Concordia Academy), gave the Eagles their largest lead of the period at 41-33, and they took a 44-39 advantage into the break.
Just like he did in the first half,
Ben Tschida (Andover, Minn./Legacy Christian Academy) scored the second half's first points on a nearly-identical, turnaround jumper. Lakeland was able to put together a run to trim its deficit to one point with 13:34 left to play, but Northwestern answered back with a 12-3 barrage that lit up the Ericksen Center crowd and put UNW ahead by double digits for the first time. The Muskies countered with a 12-0 surge to steal the lead back, but Aune drilled a big three-pointer with the shot clock expiring to swing the lead back to the Eagles with 2:47 remaining. A Greene layup extended the lead to three, and it looked like Lakeland was about to answer when their star forward Carter Koch, who scored a game-high 23 points, had a seemingly-clear lane to the hoop with 28 seconds left. But Aune slid over and blocked the layup attempt, leading to a foul in which Greene calmly sunk both free throws. A
Jonah Burnett (Orr, Minn./North Woods) layup and a game-icing free throw from Greene allowed Northwestern to hold on for a 78-74 win, despite a second-half scare on Friday the 13th.
Greene led the Eagles with 19 points and dished out a game-high six assists. Burnett fell one rebound shy of his first-career double-double with 18 points and nine boards, while Dalluge and Aune each tallied 11 points, making three treys apiece.
Samson Hagstrom (Alexandria, Minn./Alexandria Area) contributed four assists in just 13 minutes off the bench, and Tschida chipped in five rebounds. As a team, UNW shot much better than Saturday's opener at Hamline, finishing with 48.3/36.8/72.2 splits. The Eagles also out-rebounded the Muskies 34-29.
While Northwestern's players did shower Coach Westberg with water bottles in the post-game locker room, their time to celebrate will be short, as the Eagles will host Lawrence at 2:00 PM on Saturday, part of a triple-header at the Ericksen Center. The Vikings defeated Martin Luther, 89-75, on Friday night.
