LA CROSSE – In a game Charles Dickens would have loved, St. Norbert College lived to see another day with a 92-89 win over Carthage College in a first-round NCAA Division III Tournament game at La Crosse Center.
It was a tale of two halves and the best of times and worst of times for the Green Knights, whose red-hot first-half shooting burned the Firebirds en route to a 62-37 halftime lead. Carthage, the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin regular-season champion, almost stormed all the way back behind a furious rally in the final 11 minutes.
St. Norbert (23-6) advances to the second round of the NCAA Tournament at 6:50 p.m. Saturday at La Crosse Center against UW-La Crosse.
St. Norbert looked to be in good shape with a 73-48 lead with 11:22 left after a
Garrett Grzesk (pictured) jumper in the paint. The Firebirds got new life with a quick 9-0 run to cut it to 73-57 with 8:53 left. St. Norbert led 77-63 after a
Will Stuckey layup with 7:01 to go. Carthage kept the heat on with a 10-1 run to trail just 78-73 with 3:34 to go.
The Green Knights got a conventional three-point play from Grzesk with 2:33 to go for an 83-74 lead. Carthage, which made eight three-point field goals in the final 11 minutes, cut it to five before a big 3-pointer from
Jamison Nickolai with 1:22 left made it 88-80. The Firebirds continued their attack, trailing 89-87 after a Ryan Johnson trey with 12 seconds left. Follow a free throw, AJ Williams made two free throws for Carthage with 7 seconds left to make it 90-89. Grzesk then canned a pair of pressure-packed free throws for a three-point lead. Carthage brought the ball up quickly with St. Norbert trying to foul, but the ball was knocked loose and harmlessly rolled away as time expired.
The ending was in stark contrast to the first half, when a white-hot St. Norbert offense at one point had a stretch of 17 made field goals in 18 attempts. The Green Knights led 10-9 in the early going before a 17-4 run put the Green Knights up 27-13. The onslaught continued as a 23-7 run put St. Norbert up 58-29 with 2:18 left in the half. St. Norbert eventually built a 31-point lead on a
Connor Pytleski basket with 1:27 left, but the Firebirds cut it to 62-37 on a pair of 3-pointers. St. Norbert shot 76.7 percent from the floor in the first half, making 23 of 30 shots, while also going 7-for-9 (77.8 percent) from beyond the three-point arc.
St. Norbert started slowly to open the second half after a pair of
Brandt Wilson free throws on the period's opening possession. The Firebirds cut the deficit to 20 points three different times before the Green Knights went by the 25-point margin before Carthage's final 11-minute charge.
St. Norbert shot 57.7 percent (30-for-52) from the floor and 24-for-33 (72.7 percent) at the free-throw line. The Green Knights had six players reach double figures in scoring. Grzesk led the way with 19 points, with 11 in the second half. Wilson had 17 points, while Nickolai added 15 points and nine rebounds. Pytleski and
Jaeden Grade came off the bench to each score 11 points.
Will Stuckey added 10 points. St. Norbert held a 35-28 rebounding advantage.
Carthage shot 49.2 percent (31-for-63) from the floor and was 13-for-31 (41.9 percent) from the perimeter. Johnson had a game-high 29 points, with 16 in the second half. Riley Brooks added 21 points.
