Athletic News

Saint Bonifacius, Minn - On the last day of January the Lions from Finlandia came into the Wild Athletic Center for a non-conference match-up with the winless Crown College Storm.  The Storm have lost games this season by an average of 41 points per game however on Saturday afternoon the Storm came out and executed well from the beginning taking an early 18-10 lead on the Lions.  The Storm would hold the lead until the final seconds of the first half trailing at the half by 5 points 32-37.  The Storm started the second half on a 7-2 run to erase the half time deficit and take a 39-38 lead early in the second half.  With the lead the Storm hit a familiar dry spell on offense being outscored by the Lions 21-6 over the next 9 minutes to take a 16 point lead 61-45 with 9:39 remaining.  However, the Storm would not allow the previous 16 games dictate the predictable outcome in this game that has been so common this season and they came rushing back with a 26-15 run of their own to cut the lead to 5 points 76-71 with 1:51 to go in the game.  With a chance to cut the lead to 2 the Storm missed a 3 pointer with 1:21 and the Lions made 8 straight free-throws to ice the game and win 87-75.  The Lions were led by junior guard Tyler Gordon (Red Cliff, WI) who scored 25 points including 8-10 from the free-throw line.  The Storm were led by three outstanding performances including senior guard Jacob Jarvis (Kalispell, MT) who scored a career high 33 points on 13-22 shooting from the field in 35 minutes of action. Junior forward Dan Pust (Somers, MT) scored 11 points and grabbed 12 rebounds including 2 offensive rebounds in the final minutes to keep the Storm in the game with a double-double effort.  Freshman guard Steven Holladay (Belle Plaine, Minn/Belle Plaine) scored 17 points on 7-12 shooting including 3-6 from beyond the arc.  He also had 4 steals and played aggressive defense in the final run of the game.  This was the first game all season that the young and inexperienced Storm led after half time and was a great performance by a gutsy team that continues to show great heart and dedication to giving their all in every game and giving God all of the Glory no matter the outcome.  The Storm are back in conference action this weekend with a pair of road games against first place Martin Luther in New Ulm, Minn on Friday night and than travel to Mankato, Minn on Saturday for a game against Bethany Lutheran.