Notables
-Silgen records career-high 27 points (17 coming in the second half)
-CSS to make fourth UMAC championship game appearance in the last five seasons
-Bench Points, CSS-33, UNW-3
-UNW entered the game on a 13-game win streak
-Seventh straight postseason meeting between the two programs
ST. PAUL (csssaints.com) – The last time the University of Northwestern (Minn.) lost an Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) Tournament game at the Ericksen Center was the 2010 semifinal against the Saints. Well, the St. Scholastica men's basketball team did it again Wednesday night, knocking off the top-seeded Eagles 85-82 to advance to Saturday's UMAC Championship game.
How It Happened
The Saints struggled out of the gate with the Eagles (19-7) scoring six straight points before the Saints got on the board with a layup from Nick Carlson to break the drought. CSS faced a six-point deficit once again before Carlson would answer with a three pointer to make it 8-5. Jarod Wilken would sub into the game and make his first shot of the night to bring the game to 8-7 with 14:27 left in the half. A little late Collin Anderson made a bucket to give the Saints their first lead of the night, 12-11.
UNW regained the lead and extended it to as large as six points with just over eight minutes left in the half. CSS slowly battled back and regained the lead with four different Saints scoring. The Saints closed the first half with a 10-3 run to extend their led to eight points following a last second three pointer by Anderson. The Saints headed into halftime with a 40-32 lead.
St. Scholastica came out of the break extending their lead to 11 points on two different occasions in the first four minutes of the second half. The Saints margin remained above seven for the first 10 minutes of the second half. Northwestern started to get hot from beyond the arc beginning at the 10-minute mark and slowly began chipping away at the Saints lead. The Eagles finally tied the game back up at 70-70 with just over four and a half minutes left.
CSS called a timeout and would come out of the break to score four straight points to regain a 74-70 lead. Northwestern would make a layup on the following possession and calling a timeout to regroup for the final three minutes of the game with the Saints leading 74-72. Coming out of the timeout Jack Silgen would get a big and-one to fall and would make the free throw to make it 77-72. After UNW made two free throws, Silgen would once again get an and-one and make the free throw to extend the lead to 80-74. Silgen made another layup with under two minutes remaining, but the Saints would go scoreless on their next two possessions. On the other end, UNW helped the Saints by going 3-for-6 from the foul line in three possessions.
With the score at 82-79, St. Scholastica would have the ball with 37 seconds left. The Eagles put together a half-court trap, but that left Carlson wide open he would find the nylon on a three point attempt to extend the Saints lead to 85-79 with 20 seconds remaining in the second half. Northwestern would hit a 37-foot three pointer with four seconds remaining, but it was too late with St. Scholastica winning the game 85-82.
Top Performers
Silgen led all scorers with a career-high 27 points along with eight rebounds. He scored 17 of his 27 in the second half. Carlson added 19 points and Anderson and Wilken scored 15 points each in the win. Cade Goggleye led the Saints with six assists on the night.
Up Next
The Saints (15-12) will continue their postseason play as they head to Mankato Saturday afternoon for a matchup against second-seeded Bethany Lutheran College for the UMAC Championship game. The Vikings defeated the University of Wisconsin-Superior 92-72 in the other semifinal. Tipoff Saturday is scheduled for 5 p.m.