DE PERE - St. Norbert College saw a 20-point lead turn into a 10-point deficit but rallied late to pull out a 74-71 win over Wisconsin Lutheran College in a pivotal Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference game at Mulva Sports Center.
The Green Knights (14-8, 10-5 NACC) are now in a three-way tie atop the NACC standings with Wisconsin Lutheran (15-6, 10-5) and Concordia University Wisconsin (11-9, 10-5) with two games remaining. Six other teams sit one game behind the top three in the loss column.
St. Norbert found itself in dire straits when it trailed the Warriors 67-57 with 5:18 left after a Jacob Stoltz 3-pointer. St. Norbert answered with the next seven points, getting a layup from
Jacob Bolwerk, a 3-pointer from
Michael Payant and a pair of free throws from Bolwker to cut the deficit to 67-64 with 3:50 to go. Wisconsin Lutheran got a basket from Simeon Strauss, but Payant scored off an offensive rebound to get back to within three. Following an offensive foul by Wisconsin Lutheran, Bolwerk drained a 3-pointer and was fouled, converted the four-point play for a 70-69 lead with 2:29 to go.
Wisconsin Lutheran would retake the lead on a pair of Stoltz free throws with 1:20 left, but Payant's basket with 59.7 seconds left put St. Norbert ahead 72-71. Wisconsin Lutheran missed a 3-pointer and opted to play defense. Bolwerk's 3-pointer caromed long and he corralled his own free throw, making both free throws with nine seconds to go for a 74-71 edge. Following a Wisconsin Lutheran timeout in the frontcourt, the Warriors eventually found sharpshooter Trevor Stiede open at the top of the key for a good look to tie the game, but his shot was just long and hit the back iron as time expired.
The St. Norbert rally salvaged a white-hot start to the game that saw the Green Knights take a 25-5 lead to open the game. The Green Knights made 10 of their first 12 field-goal attempts and scored on their first nine possessions.
Ben Jelacic's layup put St. Norbert up 20 with 13:58 remaining in the first half. From there, St. Norbert went cold offensively, making just 4 of 20 field-goal attempts the rest of the half. The Warriors would eventually take a 39-36 lead late in the half before Payant's 3-pointer with 19 seconds left knotted the score 39-39 at halftime.
Bolwerk connected on a 3-pointer to open the second half but the Warriors would take the lead at the 18:04 mark on a Drew Bernhagen 3-pointer. After opening the game 2-for-9 from the floor, Wisconsin Lutheran made 19 of its next 28 shots. Back-to-back 3s by Stiede put Wisconsin Lutheran up 57-50 with 12:12 left. The Green Knights would go on a 7-2 run to get to within 59-57 with 8:58 to go, but the Warriors scored the next eight points to go ahead 67-57 with 5:18 left.
St. Norbert rallied after that point by holding Wisconsin Lutheran to 1-for-7 from the floor over the last five minutes of the game.
The Green Knights made 26 of 59 field-goal attempts (44.1 percent) from the floor and were 12-for-21 (57.1 percent) from distance. Bolwerk finished with a career-high 27 points, while Payant added 20.
Wisconsin Lutheran shot 49 percent (25-for-51) from the floor and 11-for-24 (45.8 percent) from beyond the arc. Stoltz posted 27 points, while Strauss added 13 points and Stiede 11 points.
