(ST NORBERT COMMUNICATIONS) DE PERE – DE PERE – St. Norbert College advanced to its fifth consecutive Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Tournament championship game after surviving a pulsating 71-70 overtime win over Aurora University at Mulva Family Fitness & Sports Center.
The Green Knights (18-7) will face Wisconsin Lutheran College (22-5) at 1 p.m. Sunday at Time of Grace Center in Milwaukee in the championship game. St. Norbert and the Warriors are meeting for the tournament title for the fifth-straight season.
St. Norbert was held to a slow first quarter, only converting three field goals in the opening 10 minutes. A Reese Sellers layup closed the gap just before the end of the quarter until a three from Aurora gave the Spartans a 17-9 lead. Two free throws from Taylor Thiry (pictured) made it 17-13 early in the second quarter, but a 13-5 run from the Spartans gave Aurora a 35-23 halftime advantage.
A flury of offense from Thiry to open the third quarter cut the lead down to 35-28 before Aurora took a 10-point lead, 44-34, with three minutes and change left in the quarter. The momentum started to swing in St. Norbert’s favor shortly after an 11-3 run saw the Green Knights deficit cut down to just two points. Sellers and Thiry each had two baskets in the run, with a Sellers layup making the score 47-45 Aurora at the end of the third.
Two free throws from Rose Hahn finally knotted the game even at 47-47 and with two massive 3-pointers for the senior off two Olivia Conway assists, St. Norbert led 55-51. Hahn hit one more three with just 3:49 left to play. A 7-0 Aurora run created another fork in the road for the Green Knights, who responded with another Hahn basket to take a one-point 60-59 lead with 1:44 to play.
The Spartans regained just a 62-60 lead with 13 seconds remaining. Thiry took destiny into her own hands with the final possession of regulation and scored the game-tying bucket with eight-and-a-half seconds left to send the game to overtime.
The two teams each dealt blows to each other but couldn’t escape from more than a one possession game in the extra period. A basket from Marnie Kahl tied it once again at 70-70 with 49 seconds left. A bad pass on the ensuing end bound ball from the Spartans led to a turnover, and with 21.6 seconds left, Thiry was fouled after grabbing an offensive board. She hit one of two free throws to hand St. Norbert a 71-70 lead.
A jump ball with under 10 seconds to play gave advantage to the Spartans, but with a loose ball causing a mad scramble on the inbound, Aurora’s Krystyna Manzanarez heaved up a shot at the buzzer to no avail to send the Green Knights back to the conference title game once again.
St. Norbert shot 49.1 percent from the floor (26-for-53). Thiry led with a double-double performance in her final home game of her legendary career, putting up 18 points and a career-high 16 rebounds. Hahn had 16 points, going 4-of-7 from three. Conway had 14 while Sellers had 11.
Aurora shot 33.8 percent from the floor (22-for-65). Manzanarez had a game-high 29 points for the Spartans.
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