Nebraska Wesleyan built up a double digit lead less than five minutes into the game and never would trail in the game as the Prairie Wolves defeated Northwestern College (Minn.) in the Championship game of the Northwestern ACM Homes Tip-Off Tournament on Saturday night (Nov. 19) in St. Paul, Minn.

NWU improves to 2-0 on the season after the tournament championship. The Prairie Wolves jumped ahead 15-4 at the 15:11 mark and built the lead up to 16 points at 29-15 at the 7:54 mark of the first half.

Northwestern would cut the lead down to just six points at 34-28 at halftime. The Eagles were within four points at 43-39 with 11:59 to play before NWU would go on a run. Over the next five minutes the Prairie Wolves would outscore Northwestern 14-3 and Eric Jackson would put NWU up 57-42 with a basket at the 7:07 mark.

Northwestern then made a late surge with a 16-5 run to get within four points with under 30 seconds left, but NWU would go 3-4 at the free throw stripe in the final 30 seconds to ice the win.

Nebraska Wesleyan shot an amazing 61.9 percent from the field in the second half to finish 50 percent for the game. Eric Jackson led NWU with 19 points hitting 3-7 from 3-point range. Jackson was named to the All-Tournament team.

Trevor Johnson, named MVP of the Tip-Off Tournament, was 8-10 from the floor to finish with 17 points and six rebounds. Nick Dinan had six points and a team-high seven rebounds with three assists.

Tom Gisler led Northwestern with 15 points

Nebraska Wesleyan opens Great Plains Athletic Conference play on Tuesday (Nov. 22) as they travel to Seward, Neb., to face Concordia University.