Box Score ST. PAUL (csssaints.com) – The St. Scholastica men's basketball team fell in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) Tournament semifinals to regular season champion University of Northwestern Thursday night 73-50 ending the Saints' season.

The Saints did not start the game on a high note, only managing four shots in the first seven minutes while turning the ball over five times in that span.  CSS would finally get on the board when Steve Golobich (Mountain Iron, Minn./Mountain Iron-Buhl HS (Mesabi Range CC)) made a free throw with 13:02 left in the first half to make the score 9-1.

That eight point deficit is the closest the Saints would come in the first half, however as CSS and Northwestern would maintain a constant scoring pace all throughout the half with the Saints cutting the margin as close as nine points and the Eagles building a lead as high as 15 points.

The Saints did cut the halftime deficit to just 11 points as LaMonte Hall (Minneapolis, Minn./DeLaSalle HS (Saint Mary’s)) sunk a 3-pointer with 37 seconds left which proved to be the last bucket of the half as the Saints went into the locker room down 33-22.

CSS would also get the first bucket of the second half when Jake Naslund (Barnum, Minn./Barnum HS) made a layup just 10 seconds in to make the Eagles lead just nine points.

Again that deficit proved to be too much as the only time the Saints would be that close again was just 1:20 later when Garret Pearson (Rush City, Minn./Rush City HS) would make a layup of his own.

The Eagles and Saints would again go on to match each other scoring with no lead larger than 15 points being attained until the Eagles went up by 17 with 7:46 left in the game when Kyle Ooms got a layup in the lane to put Northwestern up 56-39.

The Eagles then build up an eventual lead of 23 points which proved to be both the largest scoring margin of the game and the margin of victory for the Eagles as they defeated the Saints by a final score of 73-50.

Statistically for the Saints both Naslund and Mike Spoden (Grand Rapids, Minn./Grand Rapids HS) led the scoring with 11 points each.  The Saints also led Northwestern in bench scoring 22-16, while getting outscored in points off of turnovers 17-6. Rebounding was the story as Northwestern had a 21-4 advantage in second-chance points and out-rebounded the Saints 46-23.

The Eagles will host the UMAC Tournament championship on Saturday night and will face Crown College.

With that loss the Saints season officially comes to an end with a final record of 11-15. The Saints have just one senior and that is Golobich. Golobich has had many highlights the last couple of weeks, making a nearly full court shot two weekends ago and then draining the game-winning 3-pointer in Saturday's regular season finale to get the Saints into the postseason.

For future information on the St. Scholastica men's basketball program, be sure to keep checking csssaints.com.