MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.-- On a night that North Central needed it the most, Nathan Roeder stepped up to deliver the best single game scoring night in North Central University Men's Basketball history to propel the Rams to an 85-77 victory at home on Tuesday evening.
Nathan Roeder, a junior guard from Hudson, Wisconsin, showered the Clark-Danielson Gymnasium with free throw line pull-ups, fast break lay-ups, and six three point bombs to score 44 points and help North Central overcome a late second half run by the Storm that cut a 10 point lead down to just 1 at the 15:23 mark of the second half.
North Central and Crown College (St. Bonifacius, Minn.) played a back and forth first half that saw five ties and seven lead changes. NCU was able to take the lead at the 3:47 mark of the first half on a Roeder pull up jumper and go to the halftime break up 38-31. But out of the break Crown would cut the margin to just one in the first 90 seconds of the half. North Central would respond by pushing the lead to 10, the widest margin either team had enjoyed at that point at the 16:29 mark.
The Crown offense refused to give in all night and quickly responded to tie the game on a three point basket at 15:34 left in the game. But less than two minutes later, with NCU nursing a one point lead, Roeder came up with a steal and lay up followed by a three point basket that would give the Rams a cushion they would not relinquish.
Nathan Roeder would score 18 points in the final 10 mintues of the game but even his massive scoring night would not have been enough by itself and sophomore wingman Andrew Berndt (Andover, Minn.) scored 18 points and nabbed 5 steals to help balance the score sheet for the Rams. Despite missing time with foul trouble sophomore forward Bryce Burkman (Maple Grove, Minn.) scored 10 points and pulled down 8 rebounds. Junior point guard Dylan McKneely was a key factor for the Rams dishing out 8 assists, grabbing 6 rebounds, and snatching 5 steals.
Nathan Roeder has now scored 18 or more points in the last five games and in 13 of the Rams 16 contests thus far this season. His previous best on the year was 34 points at Martin Luther College (New Ulm, Minn.) back on December 8. Roeder's record night bettered the previous mark set just few days more than eight years to the day by Brandon Liebe who scored 43 points in a North Central win over Trinity Bible College on January 15, 2004.
North Central gets back to practice today as they prepare for this Saturday's 3 p.m. tip-off with Providence College (Otterburne, Manitoba) in an important NCCAA DII North Central Region match up.