DE PERE - St. Norbert College salvaged the 15th Annual Nicolet National Bank Holiday Tournament with a 78-67 win over UW-Stout in the consolation game at Mulva Family Fitness & Sports Center.
The Green Knights (7-5) fended off a furious Stout (4-7) rally in the second half to hold on for the win. St. Olaf College topped the University of Northwestern 79-77 in an entertaining championship game. St. Norbert finished the non-conference schedule 3-1 against University of Wisconsin System schools.
St. Norbert got off to a red-hot start, taking a 7-0 lead on baskets by
Evan Glaser,
Carter Gebler and a 3-pointer by
Michael Payant. The Green Knights continued to connect, banging home four 3-pointers to build a lead of 21-8 on Gebler's trey with 11:40 left before halftime. Stout would get to within 28-16 with 5:23 left and was still within 12 at 35-23 with 3:14 to go, but the Green Knights went on an 8-0 run before halftime.
Garrett Grzesk,
Jamison Nickolai, Payant, and an athletic tip-in off an offensive rebound by Nickolai that beat the halftime buzzer put St. Norbert ahead 43-23 at the rest stop.
The Green Knights would eventually build a 50-28 lead with 18:17 left on Grzesk's steal and basket, but the Blue Devils would end up making 17 of their first 23 field-goal attempts in the second half while St. Norbert suffered a 7-minute stretch with out a field goal to throw a scare at the host. Stout would cut its deficit all the way down to 66-60 with 5:59 left, but a Gebler trey and a pair of Grzesk free throws put St. Norbert up 71-60 with 3:56 left. The Blue Devils would get no closer than eight points the rest of the way.
St. Norbert shot 42.5 percent from the floor, making 26 of 61 field-goal attempts. Grzesk poured in a career-high 19 points to lead the Green Knights, while Nickolai had 16 points. Payant chipped in with 11 and Gebler had 10 points with six assists. Nickolai was named to the All-Tournament Team.
Stout shot 50 percent (24-for-48) from the floor and connected on 18 of 29 (62.1 percent) of its shots in the second half. Brody Fox led the Blue Devils with 19 points.
