MILWAUKEE - St. Norbert College remained unbeaten in Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference play with a 67-51 win over Milwaukee School of Engineering at Kern Center.
The Green Knights, now 15-3 overall and 11-0 in the NACC, opened up a two-game lead in the conference standings with seven games remaining following Aurora University's home loss to Edgewood College. St. Norbert leads both Aurora and Wisconsin Lutheran College by two games.
St. Norbert had a hot start which held up as almost the margin of victory, with the Green Knights taking a 13-0 lead seven minutes into the game.
Olivia DeCleene scored on the game's opening possession, and
Emma Morrisey followed 80 seconds later with a 3-pointer. Morrisey canned two more treys during the run, and
Taylor Thiry's basket with 3:03 left in the first quarter but the Green Knights up 13-0. St. Norbert led 15-5 after the first quarter.
The Green Knights led 21-9 before a 6-0 run gave them a 27-9 edge. Free throws from
Kaycee Gierczak and
Rose Hahn, followed by two free throws and a layup from DeCleene put St. Norbert up 18 with 3:07 left before halftime. The Raiders would score the last four points of the period to get to within 27-13 at the break.
St. Norbert built a pair of 20-point leads in the third quarter.
Natalie Cerrato's 3-pointer with 6:30 left but the Green Knights ahead 39-19, while another Cerrato triple put the visitor up 48-28 with 2:06 to go. Thiry added a conventional three-point play which led to a 51-36 advantage at the final quarter break.
The Green Knights would take their largest lead of the game on a Thiry putback for a 59-38 advantage with 5:34 to go. St. Norbert made all six of its free-throw attempts in the final three minutes to close out the victory.
St. Norbert shot 40.4 percent (23-for-57) from the floor and committed just eight turnovers. DeCleene had 17 points, while Morrisey added 14, Gierczak 12 and Thiry 11. The Green Knights were 14-for-17 at the free-throw line.
MSOE also shot 40.4 percent (21-for-52) from the field but got to the free-throw line just four times, making one. Mahima Chokshi had a team-high 16 points for the Raiders.
