DE PERE - St. Norbert College held off a late Carthage College rally and held on to win 53-47 in the opening game of the Nicolet National Bank Tip-Off Tournament at Mulva Family Fitness & Sports Center.
The Green Knights (1-1) will face Carroll University (2-0) at 3 p.m. Saturday. Carroll topped St. Mary's (Ind.) College 86-57 in the earlier game.
St. Norbert entered the fourth quarter with a 36-32 lead and led by six after
Olivia DeCleene canned a pair of free throws on the period's opening possession. The Green Knights would score just four points over the next six minutes, with Carthage tying the game at 42-42 on a Kelsey Coshun conventional three-point play with 2:57 to play. St. Norbert retook the lead when
Casey Jepson split a pair of free throws, and
Kaycee Gierczak scored after an offensive rebound to put the lead back to three. After a Firebirds' turnover Jepson was fouled on a three-point attempt and made two free throws for a 47-42 lead with 1:22 to go. Carthage got a pair of free throws with 1:04 to go, but
Emma Morrisey made two charity tosses with 50 seconds left to push the lead back to five and effectively salt away the game.
The Green Knights got off to a hot start, taking a 6-0 lead out of the gate before settling on a 13-10 lead after 10 minutes. St. Norbert eventually pushed its lead out to nine at 22-13 on a Jepson 3-pointer with 3:04 left in the second quarter before the Green Knights carried a 24-18 lead into halftime.
St. Norbert had its biggest lead of the game at 10 after baskets by Morrisey and
Mary Cravillion pushed the advantage to 28-18 two minutes into the third quarter. Carthage slowly worked its way back into the game, getting a pair of conventional three-point plays from Bridget Barrett to trail 34-32 with 2:43 left in the period. Morrisey's two free throws with 1:51 left in the quarter sent St. Norbert into the final intermission with a 36-32 lead.
St. Norbert shot 36.4 percent (16-for-44) from the floor but was 20-for-25 (80 percent) at the free-throw line. The Green Knights also held a 37-31 rebounding advantage. Gierczak and Jepson had 10 points apiece, while Morrisey,
Jessica Boerner and
Chloe Gruszynski all had eight points apiece.
Carthage shot 32.7 percent (16-for-49) from the floor. Lauren Herrmann led the Firebirds with 10 points.
