The St. Norbert College men’s basketball team dominated inside and downed Lawrence University 73-52 in a Midwest Conference game on Wednesday at Alexander Gymnasium.
Steve Papke paced the 13th-ranked Green Knights (14-3, 10-2 MWC) with 17 points. Chris Peterson added 11 points and a game-high eight rebounds.
Jon Mays led Lawrence (8-8, 7-4) with 14 points, and Chris Siebert and Erik Borresen added nine points apiece.
St. Norbert, which got 32 points in the paint, jumped out to an early eight-point lead, but the Vikings battled back to cut the edge to 17-13 on Siebert’s 3-pointer with 10:18 left in the first half.
The Green Knights countered with a 13-3 run to take a 30-16 lead with 4:27 left in the opening half. The Green Knights led by 15 late in the first half, but Mays hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to cut the lead to 37-25 at the half.
Lawrence finally put a small dent in St. Norbert’s lead with jumpers by Borresen and Andrew Kline to cut the edge to 48-40 with 11:55 left in the contest. St. Norbert answered with a 3-pointer from Brandon Gries, and Lawrence never got closer than 10 points the rest of the way.
St. Norbert’s biggest lead of the game was 23 points in the final two minutes.
Lawrence returns to action on Saturday when it hosts Carroll University.