SUPERIOR - Making its first-ever trip to the Twin Ports of Duluth-Superior, St. Norbert College survived with a hard-fought 54-48 win over UW-Superior in a non-conference game at Mortorelli Gym.
St. Norbert scored the opening basket of the game but never led again until midway through the second half. The Yellowjackets built four separate leads of six points in the first half, but the Green Knights would counter with the next basket each time to trail just 26-22 at halftime.
Superior would again build two six-point leads early in the second half, but again each time St. Norbert would score the next points. The Green Knights eventually tied the game 32-32 with 13:49 left. A
Garrett Grzesk layup would put St. Norbert ahead 34-32 with 12:51 left, but Superior scored the next four points to retake a two-point lead. Superior led 38-37 on a Josh Reinertsen basket with 9:08 remaining, but a pair of
Carson Talbert free throws would push St. Norbert back ahead with 8:11 left.
A Reinertsen triple with 6:31 to go tied the game at 41-41, but baskets by
Jacob Bolwerk and
Carter Gebler pushed St. Norbert ahead 45-41 with 5:22 to go, and the Green Knights would never be tied or trail again. St. Norbert led 50-45 with 1:31 to go after a pair of
Michael Payant free throws, but Superior would make a last-ditch effort to rally on an Eli Vogel 3-pointer with 1:20 to go. St. Norbert would turn it over with 52 seconds left, and Superior would miss a 3-pointer with 35 seconds left. The Yellowjackets would corral the offensive rebound but then turned it over with 23 seconds left on a Payant steal. Payant then made all four free-throw attempts the rest of the way to seal the win.
The Green Knights were whistled for just eight fouls in the game, and Superior never attempted a free throw. St. Norbert was 13-for-14 (92.9 percent) at the charity stripe.
St. Norbert shot 37.7 percent from the floor, going 20-for-53. Talbert led the Green Knights with 16 points, while Bolwerk added 13 points and Payant with nine points and six rebounds.
Superior shot 43.1 percent (22-for-51) from the floor and was 4-for-25 (16 percent) from beyond the three-point arc. Vogel paced the Yellowjackets with 11 points, while Reinertsen added 10 points.
