Men's Basketball Lose Final Two Games of Season
The Crown College Men's Basketball team went into the final weekend attempting to get their first win of the season and came up short in both attempts. On Friday night the Storm took on the upstart Presentation College from Aberdeen, SD. The Saints came into this weekend looking to secure the 6th and final spot in the conference tournament. The Storm started out strong scoring the first 5 points of the game to take an early 5-0 lead but the Saints would score 8 straight points in the next 2 minutes to take an 8-5 lead. After an 8-8 tie with a three pointer by senior Jacob Jarvis (Kalispell, MT) the Saints went on a 6-0 run to take a 14-8 lead and after the Storm cut the lead to 4 at 14-10 the Saints outscored the Storm 9-0 to take a 13 point lead at 23-10. They would extend their lead to 21 at the half 37-16 outscoring the Storm 23-6 in the 8 minutes of the half. The Storm would get no closer than 19 points in this game in the second half and lost 64-36 on the evening. The Storm held the Saints to just 27 points in the second half but could never find their shooting touch in this game to shoot just 26% on the game and were outrebounded by 15 in the game. The Storm were led by senior guard Jacob Jarvis who was the only player in double figures for Crown with 15 points and 6 rebounds including 3-4 from three point range. Junior Dan Pust finished with 9 points on 4-7 shooting but sat for most of the first half with 3 fouls in just 23 minutes of action. On Saturday in the final game for Jacob Jarvis the Storm took on the University of Minnesota, Morris who had clinched the 4th seed in the post season tournament heading into this game. In a game that was close from the opening tip the Storm came out with their shooting touch and were within 4 points at 30-26 with 4:35 left in the first half but the Cougars from UM - Morris would finish the half on a 10-2 run to take a 12 point lead into the half. The Storm would hang around for much of the second half and cut the lead to 11 points at 56-45 with a chance to get the lead under 10 after a steal by freshman Joel Geer (Pine Hill, NJ/Pine Hill) but a missed jumper by Jarvis and a quick score by the Cougars pushed the lead back to 13 points. The Storm would get no closer than that the rest of the way as fatigue finally caught up to the Storm and they ended up losing 78-55 to end the season 0-24 overall and 0-14 in conference. Prior to the game the Storm honored senior Jacob Jarvis by presenting him with a game ball signed by all of his teammates and coaches in recognition for his outstanding leadership and commitment to this team. Jarvis did not disappoint the fans in his final game of his career scoring 19 points on 8-13 shooting including 2-3 from three point range. Jarvis played 37 minutes in a game that saw him severely injure his ankle mid-way through the second half and insist on going back in to finish his season out. Junior post Dan Pust (Somers, MT) was a perfect 6-6 from the field scoring 13 points including a thunderous dunk with just over 6 minutes to go in the first half that brought the crowd to it's feet. Freshman guard Jesse Elsenpeter (Walker, Minn/Walker-Hackensack) also scored in double figures with 11 points going 5-6 from the field and only committing 1 turnover in 36 minutes of action. The Storm shot a season high 53% from the field and held the Cougars to 37% in the first half but were outrebounded on the night 38 -19 including 21 offensive rebounds.
