Box Score Box Score

ST. PAUL – The St. Scholastica men's basketball team hit clutch shots and free throws in the final minute to upend Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) regular season champion and top-seeded Northwestern College 75-71 tonight in UMAC Tournament semifinal action.

The Saints move on to face the University of Minnesota-Morris in the UMAC Tournament Championship game on Saturday in Morris. The Saints split with the Cougars during the regular season with each team winning on its home court. Northwestern finishes the season with a 19-7 record.

A tired CSS squad entered tonight's UMAC semifinal contest after arriving back in Duluth at 4:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning from Aberdeen, S.D., following its quarterfinal victory over Presentation. On top of that, CSS was without second-leading scorer and sharpshooter #Chris Hamers# (Jr.-Onamia, Minn.), who was out with an injury.

For the first half at least, the Saints looked like a rested and healthy squad, shooting 67-percent from the floor in the half , while holding the Eagles to 29-percent shooting. St. Scholastica had a pair of 7-0 runs in the first half to take a 39-24 halftime lead.

The Saints had another 7-0 run in the second half and had a 50-31 lead with 14 minutes to go. The margin got up to 21 points after a #Max Dibrell# (Sr.-Duluth, Minn./East) layup with 12 minutes to go. Due to Hamers' injury, the Saints went just six deep in the lineup and that plus the travel for the past week seemed to catch up to the Saints.

The Eagles began to slowly chip away at the lead and eventually got it down to two with 1:06 to go. Then #Danny Schmitz# (Jr.-Hinckley, Minn./Hinckley-Finlayson) hit a clutch 3-pointer as the shot clock expired to put the Saints back up by five, 70-65.

After a jumper by Northwestern, Schmitz stepped to the line and hit two free throws to make it 72-67 with 18 seconds left. Northwestern made two free throws on the proceeding possession and Schmitz hit 1-of-2 from the line to make it 73-69 with 11 seconds left.

The Eagles connected on a long 2-pointer on the next possession to make it a two-point game. Senior Max Dibrell (Duluth, Minn./Duluth East HS) then stepped to the line and hit both free throws to make it a two possession game with five seconds to go and gave CSS the 75-71 triumph. This is the second straight postseason victory for the Saints over Northwestern on the Eagles' home court. The last time it happened was in 2007 in the UMAC Championship game.

The Saints shot 63-percent for the game and was 16-for-19 from the free throw line. Northwestern shot 39-percent and was 8-for-34 on 3-point attempts. The Eagles grabbed 19 offensive rebounds in the contest, but only had 13 second-chance points.

Danny Schmitz (Hinckley, Minn./Hinckley-Finlayson HS) scored a game-high 26 points to lead St. Scholastica. #Brett Tester# (Fr.-Andover, Minn.) added 19 points and #Derek Anderson# (Jr.-Cook, Minn.) had 11 points and a team-high six rebounds off the bench. Reid Berens had a double-double with 18 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Eagles.

The Saints, now 11-16 on the year, will look for their fourth straight road win and their second consecutive UMAC Tournament title on Saturday at Minnesota-Morris. The action is set to begin at 3 p.m. The game can be seen live on the web, courtesy of the University of Minnesota-Morris.