First Half Struggles Doom Storm Against Northwestern
Saint Bonifacius, Minn – In a game between two teams fighting to remain in first place in the conference, only one of them came out ready to seize the opportunity. The Eagles from Northwestern continued their dominance against the Storm when they jumped to an early 9-0 advantage.
The Storm trailed by 11 points with six minutes and twelve seconds to go in the first half when the Eagles went on a 20-9 run to close the half leading by 22 points, 51-29. The Storm turned the ball over 10 times in the first half resulting in 19 points for the Eagles. Northwestern built their lead from the free-throw line going 10-10, while the Storm did not attempt a free-throw in the first half.
The Storm came out with a much higher level of intensity in the second half and attempted to make a comeback on the Eagles, cutting the lead to 17 points but was not able to get critical stops on the defensive end. The Eagles continued to dominate on the boards, out-rebounding the Storm 47-34 in pulling out the road victory 78-63. The Storm outscored the Eagles 34-27 in the second half and held the Eagles to just 39% shooting but could not overcome a poor first half and a free-throw advantage of 15-1.
In the loss, the Storm led by senior guard Michael Landers (Milwaukee, Wis.) scoring 15 points and grabbing 7 rebounds. Freshman guard David Glover (Burnsville, Minn.) led a hot shooting Crown team in the second half with 9 points on 3 of 4 shooting from three-point range followed closely by freshman point guard Taylor Jones (Lindstrom, Minn.) with 9 points on 3 of 5 shooting from beyond the arc. The Storm shot 10-18 from beyond the arc for the game. With the loss, the Storm drop to 3-2 (3-12 overall) in conference play and are tied for second place with next week’s opponent, the University of Minnesota – Morris, who visit the Wilds Athletic Center on Friday January 22nd at 7:30p.m.
