(ST. NORBERT COMMUNICATIONS) DE PERE – St. Norbert College made just enough plays down the stretch to hold on and claim a 76-73 win over Milwaukee School of Engineering in a Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Tournament semifinal game at a rollicking Mulva Family Fitness & Sports Center.
The Green Knights (21-6) outlasted the Raiders (18-9) in a well-played game that featured tough shot-making throughout by both teams. Surging St. Norbert, winners of its last 11 games, advances to face No. 17 Wisconsin Lutheran College in the NACC Tournament championship game at 2 p.m. Sunday at Time of Grace Center in Milwaukee.
St. Norbert shot nearly 50 percent from the floor but couldn’t shake the Raiders and their two sublime playmakers, Mason Dopirak and Donovan Carter. The Green Knights led 62-56 with 8:43 left following a Connor Pytleski 3-pointer, but MSOE got a conventional three-point play and a hoop from Carter on the next two possessions to get things down to one. Pytleski converted a fastbreak basket with 7:08 left for a 64-61 lead, but MSOE answered with five points from Chase Cummings for a 66-64 wtih 5:52 to go.
Will Stuckey (pictured) then made the first of several key plays down the stretch, hitting a tough off-balance 20-footer with the shot clock cycling to zero to knot things at 66-66 with 5:17 left. St. Norbert took the lead on a pair of Garrett Grzesk free throws off a 1-and-1 with 4:17 to go, MSOE’s Ethan Johnson answered on the next trip and St. Norbert responded again on a Brandt Wilson finish with 3:38 to go to make it 70-68.
MSOE would tie things at 70-70 with 2:04 left on a pair of Carter free throws, but Jamison Nickolai canned a jumper moments later. Following a defensive stop, Wilson cashed in from the paint for a 74-70 lead with 1:11 to go. Dopirak then made a tough 3-pointer from the top of the key with just under a minute left. The Green Knights missed early in the shot clock, but got a second chance when Stuckey cleanly picked Dopirak with 39 seconds left. Nickolai’s floater off the glass gave St. Norbert a three-point lead with 12.2 seconds to go. St. Norbert then dug in on MSOE’s final possession, forcing a wild 3-pointer that was well off the mark.
St. Norbert got off to a good start, taking a 20-9 lead just over eight minutes into the game. The Raiders whittled that down to 22-20 with 8:04 left in the half and eventually took a 28-25 lead at the 6:11 mark. St. Norbert got a big 3-pointer from Aidan Harrington with 1:03 left for a 38-35 lead. Grzesk hit a pair of bonus free throws with 22 seconds left and a long Dopirak jumper made it 40-37 at halftime.
The second half continued to be closely fought, with St. Norbert grabbing a trio of six-point leads – the last on Pytleski’s jumper with 8:43 left to set up the game’s pulsating denouement.
St. Norbert made 30 of 61 field-goal attempts (49.2 percent). Wilson and Nickolai shared the team lead for St. Norbert with 18 points apiece, while Pytleski added 11. Stuckey finished with seven points, three assists and three steals in 29 minutes running the point.
MSOE shot 44.8 percent (26-for-58) from the field and was 10-for-24 (41.7 percent) from the perieter. Carter finished with a game-high 24 points, while Dopirak added 18.
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