Vos' Career High Carries WLC Over CUW

MEQUON, Wis. (WLCSports.com) - Senior AJ Vos (Lombard, Ill.) scored a career-high 21 points and senior Ryan Broeckel (Chilton, Wis.) became the 24th player in program history to reach 1,000 career points, as Wisconsin Lutheran College came away with a 79-69 Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference win over Concordia Wisconsin on Saturday at the R. John Buuck Field House.

The Warriors (18-4, 13-2 NACC), who moved into a tie with St. Norbert atop the NACC standings, never trailed against the Falcons (9-12, 8-6 NACC) en route to their fourth straight victory.

WLC jumped out to an 11-2 lead in the first three minutes of the game after a three from Vos. Freshman Dom HIll (Waukesha, Wis.) gave Wisconsin Lutheran its first double-digit advantage at 17-6 following his jumper at the 13:32 mark. A dunk from Vos sent the lead to a game-high 14 points at 26-12 with just over eight-and-a-half minutes left. Broeckel eclipsed 1,000 career points after his jumper just outside the free throw line maintained the 14-point lead with 6:32 left.

The margin remained in double digits until the four-minute mark when CUW cut its deficit down to eight at 32-24. Back-to-back buckets from sophomores Noah Howard (Waukesha, Wis.) and Austin Wagner (Jackson, Wis.) lifted the lead to 12, before Concordia Wisconsin came within seven after five straight with a minute to play. The Warriors, who led 39-31 at halftime, shot 56.7 percent after Vos and Broeckel scored 14 and 13 points, respectively.

The Falcons opened the second half on a 10-2 scoring run to tie the score at 41-41 just two-and-a-half minutes in. The the contest was knotted against at 47-47, but a personal 7-0 scoring spurt from senior Jacob Stoltz (Kewaskum, Wis.) pushed the lead to 54-47 with just under 11 minutes remaining. CUW cut its deficit down to three with 7:38 to play, before five straight points from Vos extended the lead back to eight.

Senior Grayson Goetz (Aurora, Ill.) capped a 5-0 spurt with his three-pointer with 44 seconds left and WLC led by double digits the rest of the way. Stoltz scored all 10 of his points in the second half for Wisconsin Lutheran, which outscored Concordia Wisconsin 13-1 in points off turnovers.

Vos led the Warriors with a career-high 21 points on 9-for-13 shooting. Broeckel finished with 19 points, while Stoltz flirted with a near triple-double of 10 points, 10 rebounds, nine assists, and four steals. Goetz added nine points and eight assists. WLC, which shot an even 50 percent (33-for-66) for the game, outscored the Falcons 22-8 in points off turnovers.

Freeman Jackson scored 22 points and Gabe Pruss posted 22 points and 11 rebounds for the Falcons, who shot 45.9 percent (28-for-61) from the floor. 

Wisconsin Lutheran returns home to the Time of Grace Center to host Illinois Tech (5-17, 4-11 NACC) on Wednesday at 7 p.m. Live coverage links will be available at WLCSports.com.