DE PERE - St. Norbert College held off a late Wisconsin Lutheran College crusade to pick up a 61-58 win in a key Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference game on Connie Tilley Court at Mulva Family Fitness & Sports Center.
The Green Knights (11-3, 7-0) remained unbeaten in NACC play with the win, while defending champion Wisconsin Lutheran (8-6, 5-2) fell two games off the pace.
St. Norbert held a tenuous 45-43 lead at the end of the third quarter, and Wisconsin Lutheran continued a 20-4 run that lasted 8:49 through most of the third quarter and into the fourth quarter to eventually take a 48-45 lead with 8:29 to go. St. Norbert answered with a 7-1 run to retake a three-point lead on baskets by
Emma Morrisey and
Kaycee Gierczak and a clutch 3-pointer from Morrisey for a 52-49 lead with 5:53 to go.
A hustling
Olivia DeCleene had a driving baseline layup on an offensive rebound to put St. Norbert ahead 56-43 with 4:36 left. Wisconsin Lutheran's Sam Leisemann tied it at 56 on a conventional three-point play with 3:18 to go, but a pair of
Kaycee Gierczak free throws pushed St. Norbert ahead with 2:12 left. Kara Troxel's layup with 1:47 to go retied the game at 58-58. Gierczak's basket from the right block gave St. Norbert a 60-58 lead with 1:28 to go.
An offensive foul on Wisconsin Lutheran with 24 seconds left eventually led to a pair of missed free throws by St. Norbert, but Wisconsin Lutheran's jumper late was corralled by Gierczak with 0.7 seconds left. Gierczak split the free throws, and the Warriors called timeout with 0.4 seconds left to advance into the front court. Leisemann's attempted 3 from the top of the key hit the left iron and bounced away as the buzzer sounded.
St. Norbert trailed much of the first period against a red-hot Wisconsin Lutheran offense that took a 15-9 lead with 2:06 left in the quarter. A quick 10-3 run the last two minutes fueled by triples from DeCleene,
Natalie Cerrato and
Chloe Gruszynski brought St. Norbert to within 19-18 after 10 minutes. The Green Knights outscored the Warriors 15-6 in a key second quarter, with Gruszynski's tough putback as the buzzer sounded put St. Norbert ahead 33-25.
The Green Knights eventually took their biggest lead at 41-28 with 7:18 left in the third quarter, but then went cold the rest of the frame, going 1-for-11 the rest of the period to see their lead melt to 45-43 with 10 minutes left to play.
St. Norbert shot 37.3 percent (22-for-59) from the floor and was outrebounded 39-22, but played nearly a flawless floor game by committing a paltry eight turnovers. Gruszynski led the Green Knights with 16 points, while Gierczak added 14 points and eight rebounds. DeCleene finished with 10 points.
Wisconsin Lutheran shot 53.8 percent (21-for-39) from the floor but was harried into 24 turnovers. Ally Gough came off the bench to pace the Warriors with 14 points, while Leisemann added 12 points. Ella Ten Pas had 15 rebounds along with six points.
