DE PERE - St. Norbert College opened the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Men's Basketball Tournament with a 76-60 win over Concordia University Chicago in a quarterfinal-round game at Mulva Family Fitness & Sports Center.

The Green Knights (21-5) will host Benedictine University at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 22, in a semifinal contest.

Both teams started out hot, with St. Norbert taking a 14-10 lead on a Carter Gebler 3-pointer at the 13:39 mark. The Green Knights led 19-17 at the 10:47 mark before the Cougars hit a trey, but Connor Pytleski's triple put St. Norbert ahead 22-20 with 9:01 left. Concordia tied it on a hoop at 8:20 and neither team scored for almost three minutes until Garrett Grzesk's 3-pointer at the 5:24 mark.

St. Norbert had three five-point leads until a 5-0 Concordia run tied it at 31-31 with 2:28 to go. A pair of Evan Glaser free throws, a Jamison Nickolai 3-pointer and a second-chance 3-pointer by Gebler just before the halftime buzzer sent the Green Knights into halftime with a 39-31 lead.

The Green Knights opened the second half on an 8-2 run to build a 47-33 lead following a Nickolai layup at 16:09 to cap off an overall 16-2 run. Concordia would get to within 47-39 with 13:57 left but St. Norbert boosted it back to 13 on a pair of Glaser free throws and a Nickolai 3-pointer. The Green Knights led 54-41 before the Cougars went on a 6-0 run to get to within at 54-47 with 7:05 to go. But St. Norbert closed out the game with a 12-0 run, fueled on 3-pointers by Grzesk, Aidan Harrington and Nickolai to take a 66-47 lead with 4:42 left.

St. Norbert shot 47.8 percent (22-for-46) from the floor and 10-for-22 (45.5 percent) from beyond the three-point arc. Nickolai poured in a career-high 24 points with eight rebounds. Gebler added 16 points, while Glaser had 10 points and nine rebounds.

Concordia Chicago shot 35.7 percent (20-for-56) from the floor and 6-for-25 (24 percent) from distance. Jacob Collicott led the Cougars with 20 points with Jordan Matthews adding 11 points.