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For Immediate Release
February 20, 2007
Basketball teams heat up as season nears
end
Nebraska Wesleyan’s basketball teams are both
on a roll heading into this weekend’s Division III Independent
tournaments. The NWU men, are 7-18 overall, but have won two in
a row, while the NWU women have improved to 4-21 with two wins in
their last three outings.
The Prairie Wolves will host the Men’s Division
III Independent Tournament on Friday night and Saturday afternoon
in Snyder Arena, while the women’s team will travel to Orange,
Calif., where they will wrap up their 2006-07 season. Game times
and opponents are listed below.
Nick Madsen (So., Lincoln, Neb., Lincoln High School)
came off the bench on Saturday to score a career-high 17 points
as NWU defeated Briar Cliff University 78-66. Madsen added four
rebounds and four assists in just 22 minutes of action, and it was
NWU’s second double-digit win in a row.
The other was Nebraska Wesleyan’s 87-71 win
against Dana College on Feb. 10, when the Prairie Wolves, had four
players in double figures, including Marcus Minzel (Jr., Lincoln,
Neb., Lincoln High School), who scored 21 points and was 12-for-12
from the charity stripe. Minzel, who leads the team at 16.2 points
per game, is averaging better than 20 points and nearly four assists
during the team’s last four contests.
Finding the open man and limiting turnovers seem
to be making the difference. The NWU men have shot better than 50
percent in each of their last two outings and are averaging 20 assists
compared to just 10 turnovers per game.
Nebraska Wesleyan defeated the University of California-Santa
Cruz, its opponent on Friday, twice last season, but fell short
in a bid to upset Chapman University in the Division III Independent
tourney title game, 76-67, which kept the Prairie Wolves from making
the NCAA Div. III Championships in 2006.
Nebraska Wesleyan’s women also turned the
tables on Briar Cliff last Saturday with a 58-55 win in Lincoln.
The Chargers defeated Nebraska Wesleyan 67-64 in Sioux City, Iowa,
earlier this season in much the same fashion. In that game, the
Prairie Wolves trailed by 14 at halftime, but pulled within a point
twice in the last two minutes before falling short. This time around,
it was NWU with the upper hand during most of the game and BCU with
the late rally.
NWU’s leading scorer Devan Aschtgen (Jr.,
Springfield, Neb., Platteview High School) made a free throw to
snap a 55-55 tie with 24.5 seconds remaining. Then, she turned things
over to her teammate Samantha Porter (Sr., Hastings, Neb., Hastings
High School), who finished the Chargers off.
Porter forced a traveling violation with :06 remaining.
Then, with just 4.8 ticks left, Porter calmly hit two free throws
to give NWU a three-point edge and extend her streak of consecutive
free throws made to 23, breaking the mark established by Amy Meier
in 2005. Briar Cliff’s three-point shot at the buzzer drew
iron, but missed, which made for a much happier celebration for
Porter and Meagan Wells (Sr., Sidney, Neb., Sidney High School)
on senior day.
Wells finished with 10 points against BCU and with
a pair of three-pointers, she surpassed Stefanie Peterson for 10th
place on the NWU all-time charts with 56 career treys. Her three-point
percentage as a senior, .417 (25-for-60), ranks fourth in team single-season
history, and her career 37 percent shooting from beyond the arc
currently ranks fifth at Nebraska Wesleyan.
Despite missing more than half of the team’s
games this season due to a foot injury suffered in the season finale
for the women’s soccer team, Porter needs just five assists
to become Nebraska Wesleyan’s career leader. Porter now has
324 for her career, trailing only Heather Wubbels, who racked up
328 from 1990-93.
Nebraska Wesleyan, which also came in as the No.
4 seed at the Division III Independent Tournament last season, stunned
top-seeded Chapman, 91-67, but this year the Panthers will be playing
on their home court.
Men’s Div. III Independent Basketball
Tournament
At Lincoln, Neb., all times are local (CST)
Friday, Feb. 23
5 PM - (1) Chapman University, 19-5 overall, vs. (4) Colorado College,
3-21 overall
7 PM - (3) UC-Santa Cruz, 3-21 overall, at (2) Nebraska Wesleyan,
7-18 overall
Saturday, Feb. 24
1 PM - Consolation game
3 PM - Championship game
Women’s Div. III Independent Basketball
Tournament
At Orange, Calif., all times are local (PST)
Friday, Feb. 23
5 PM - (3) UC-Santa Cruz, 10-15 overall, vs. (2) Colorado College,
9-13 overall
7 PM - (4) Nebraska Wesleyan, 4-21 overall, at (1) Chapman University,
20-5 overall
Saturday, Feb. 24
3 PM - Consolation game
5 PM - Championship game
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