Box Score
Box score
ROCKFORD, Ill. - Seventh-seeded Wisconsin
Lutheran College knocked off the No. 3 seed Rockford College 76-66
on Friday in the semifinal round of the 2009 Northern Athletics
Conference Men's Basketball Tournament at the Seaver Center.
Wisconsin Lutheran (15-12) moves on to face fifth-seeded Aurora
University (15-12) on Saturday at 7 p.m. in Aurora, Ill., for the
NAC Tournament Championship. The winner receives the conference's
automatic berth to the NCAA Division III Tournament. The Warriors
and Spartans have split a pair of meetings this season, with each
team winning on its home court. AU defeated top-seeded Benedictine
University 74-72 in its semifinal game on Friday.
The Warriors trailed by two points early on before senior Kyle
Plath (Lake Geneva, Wis./Shoreland Lutheran) hit a three-pointer to
put WLC up 5-4 at the 17:55 mark of the first half. WLC never
trailed from the point on, building a game-high 15-point lead
(25-10) with 8:56 left in the half. The Warriors led 34-25 at
halftime.
Wisconsin Lutheran, which shot 58.3 from beyond the arc in the
second half, never saw its lead dip below four points in the second
period. Rockford trailed by five points at the 9:01 mark, but
back-to-back threes by junior Kyle Madson (Madison, Wis./Lakeside
Lutheran) and senior Danny Behm (Jackson, Wis./Kettle Moraine
Lutheran) pushed the lead back to 11 points. The Warriors led by a
second half-high 13 points (69-56) with 2:39 remaining in the
game.
Behm and Madson, who finished with 11 points each in the second
half, ended with 15 points to lead the Warriors. Madson grabbed a
team-high eight rebounds, while Behm dished out a team-high six
assists. Plath and junior Jeremy Burmeister (Phoenix, Ariz./Arizona
Lutheran) added 14 and 11 points, respectively.
WLC, which has made at least 10 three-pointers in 17 games this
season, shot 46.8 percent (29-for-62) from the floor in the game.
The Regents finished the game shooting 40 percent (28-for-70).
Danny Armelin scored 15 points to pace three other players in
double figures for Rockford (17-10), which had one win all of last
season. Garrett Staniec tallied a double-double with 13 points and
a game-high 12 rebounds.
