By Murray Gleffe
Correspondent
DE PERE — The St. Norbert College men’s basketball team used two separate runs in a 76-46 victory over UW-Superior at the Mulva Sports Center Dec. 29.
The first-round game was a part of the Nicolet National Bank Holiday Tournament.
The Green Knights went on a 24-2 run midway through the first half and a 26-8 spurt after intermission.
“Our defense spurred our offense,” said St. Norbert head coach Gary Grzesk. “We got out in transition and got easy baskets. The guys were locked into the game plan.”
Joe Ciriacks led St. Norbert (6-2 overall) with 15 points and six rebounds, and Michael Payant added 10 points and three assists.
Superior (6-5 overall) was paced by Vid Milenkovic, who led all scorers with 20 points.
It was Superior which controlled the early part of the game after connecting on four consecutive triples to take a 12-7 lead.
Green Knights point guard Wade Geenen hit a 24-foot shot to cut Superior’s lead to two points.
A little later with the Yellow Jackets up 17-11, St. Norbert went on the first game-defining run.
It started with a long-range bomb by Ciriacks and didn’t end until the Green Knights were up 35-19 with 3:04 left until halftime.
St. Norbert led 36-23 at halftime behind 19 rebounds (six offensive) and 54 percent three-point shooting, despite connecting on only 7-of-13 free throws.
“We are a good shooting team,” added Grzesk. “Any time we grab boards to keep a possession alive, We are going to finish. Lots of those are hustle plays … going to the glass hard.”
The Yellow Jackets came out of halftime and scored the first four points.
Meanwhile, the Green Knights were ice cold, only hitting two shots during the first six minutes.
With its lead down to single digits, St. Norbert used a timeout to regroup and went on their second run to extend the lead to 62-35 with 6:52 left.
With the game comfortably in hand, Carson Talbert put the finishing touches on the victory with a one-hand flush to give the Green Knights the win.
“We’ve walked a fine line,” Grzesk added. “A couple of our wins were by a single point. We made some timely plays during this winning streak. Our goal is to win the final in our home tourney and move forward into our conference.”
St. Norbert has won six straight games and will take on UW-Stout in the championship game Dec. 30 at 7 p.m.
Box score
UW-Superior: 23, 23—46
St. Norbert: 36, 40—76
Yellow Jackets: Milenkovic 20, Kramer 6, Anderson 5, Ackley 5, Reykdal 5, Mellberg 3, Patterson 2.
Green Knights: Ciriacks 15, Payant 10, Geenen 9, Curtis 8, Murphy 8, Talbert 6, Pettit 5, Beirne 4, Bolwerk 4, Nicklaus 4, Lynch 3.