DE PERE - St. Norbert College couldn't slow down the University of Dubuque in the second half, as the Green Knights dropped an 83-73 decision in the championship game of the Nicolet National Bank Holiday Tournament at Mulva Family Fitness & Sports Center.
The unbeaten Spartans (11-0) connected on 15 of 20 (75 percent) field-goal attempts and 6 of 7 (85.7 percent) of its three-point attempts in the second half as they pulled away from a 37-35 halftime lead.
St. Norbert (9-3) saw an early 5-0 deficit turn into a pair of four-point leads, the latter at 11-7 halfway through the first half. Neither team led by more than four points the rest of the first half, with St. Norbert's taking a 32-31 lead on a
Carter Gebler layup with 2:11 left. A
Connor Pytleski trey with 28 seconds left tied the score at 35-35, but the Spartans converted a pair of free throws with 0.3 seconds left for a two-point lead at the break.
The Green Knights led 44-43 with 16:35 left after an
Aidan Harrington basket, but Dubuque responded with a 12-2 run to take a 55-46 lead with 12:16 left. Dubuque built a 15-point lead at 70-55 with 7:30 left, but the Green Knights went on an 8-0 run with Gebler scoring all the points to get to within 70-63 with 5:34 to go. Dubuque answered with a 6-0 run of its own to effectively seal the outcome.
St. Norbert shot 46.7 percent from the floor, making 28 of 60 field-goal attempts. Gebler led the Green Knights with 20 points, while
Evan Glaser added 11 points and eight rebounds - with both being named to the All-Tournament Team. Pytleski scored a career-high 16 points, while
Jamison Nickolai posted 12 points.
Dubuque finished the game 27-for-48 (56.3 percent) from the floor and 13-for-21 (61.9 percent) from beyond the three-point arc. Sam Kilburg and Dylan Anderson led the Spartans with 20 points apiece, while Jaylin McCants and Grady Thompson scored points apiece. Kilburg was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, while Anderson and McCants joined UW-Superior's Josef Fahrenholtz on the All-Tournament Team.
