Box Score DULUTH, Minn. (csssaints.com) – The St. Scholastica men's basketball team pulled away late Tuesday night to defeat Northland College 63-50 behind 13-point nights from Trevor Morlock (Rogers, Minn./Rogers HS (Minn., Crookston)) and Andrew Laughlin (Duluth, Minn./Duluth Central HS).

The Saints started off hot taking an early 12-6 lead, but Northland quickly came back on an 11-2 run to take the lead at 17-14 with 9:40 to go in the first half.

The game was back-and-forth all the way through the rest of the first half, which saw one tie and four lead changes. However, as the buzzer sounded to end the first half the Saints were on top by a score of 25-24. 

Mike Spoden (Grand Rapids, Minn./Grand Rapids HS) led the Saints in scoring and rebounding totaling seven points and five boards in the first half, followed by Jake Naslund (Barnum, Minn./Barnum HS) who had six points.

Northland came out on all cylinders early in the second half and eventually jumped out to a 38-32 lead with just under 14 minutes to play.  St. Scholastica would then go on a 9-0 run to take the lead at 41-38 with 10:47 left in the game.

Perhaps the turning point in the game for the Saints was during the 9-0 run when Scottie Rucks (St. Cloud, Minn./St. Cloud Cathedral HS) stole a Northland pass and chucked it down court to Laughlin who proceeded to emphatically dunk the basketball and put CSS ahead 39-38.

Garret Pearson (Rush City, Minn./Rush City HS) would go on to complete the run with a hard fought layup and complete the momentum swing in favor of the Saints.

The game would once again be back-and-forth until the Saints pulled away from the LumberJacks with a 16-3 run putting the score at 61-47 with just 1:32 to play in the game. The Saints would then coast to a well-earned victory and take the win at 63-50.

The Saints bench was very important in this game outscoring the Northland bench 29-2.  The Saints also out-muscled the Jacks in the paint scoring 32 points to just 18 by Northland.

In addition to Morlock's and Laughlin's 13-point performances, Spoden added 10 points. Guard Tyler Rosenberger (Forest Lake, Minn./Forest Lake HS) led the team with seven rebounds. Zach Ringhouse had 15 points lead the LumberJacks (2-9, 0-1 UMAC).

The Saints (4-8, 1-0 UMAC) will next be in action at the University of Minnesota Morris Friday at 5:30 p.m. followed by a Saturday game at Crown College at 3 p.m.