Crown 66, UW-Superior 64
SUPERIOR, Wis. (February 3, 2018) – It was another close contest for the Yellowjackets Saturday afternoon, making a comeback in the final minutes, but Superior was unable to secure the win, falling to the Crown College Storm.
Both teams were cold out of the gate, missing a combined first-four shots until Crown was able to score the layup at 17:38. The Yellowjackets answered when Shaq Coleman (Duluth, Minn./Duluth East) hit the spinning 2-point jumper in the lane on the following possession. Montroy Scott (Fridley, Minn./Columbia Heights) would level at 4-4 after a pair of free throws about five minutes in.
Superior would fall behind slightly in the coming minutes, but four points from Colton Williams (Columbia Heights, Minn. /Columbia Heights) and a layup from Coleman would get the 'Jackets back to within three, 18-15, at 7:15. Coleman would follow it up with an and-one basket and free throw to make it 23-18 Storm.
Vid Milenkovic (Zurich, Switzerland/DSB Belgrade, Serbia) and Williams had a nice give-and-go sequence at the three-minute mark of the half, getting two more points on the board, followed by two back-to-back stops and a Nate Kalien (Chippewa Falls, Wis./Chippewa Falls) 3-pointer made it 33-25 Storm after one half of play.
Milenkovic added a bucket to begin the second half, getting the layup down low, followed by a Coleman-forced Storm turnover that resulted in a Scott floater to make it 33-29 Crown. Superior would get a few more buckets including a Coleman putback after an offensive rebound, and two points from Williams to get 37 on the board, but Crown held a 15-point lead at the 11:35 mark.
Kalien provided some much need points at the nine-minute mark, and Coleman hit yet another spinning layup at 8:36 to cut the Storm lead to seven points. A few possessions later, Mac Reykdal (Washburn, Wis./Washburn) hit the corner 3-pointer after a Crown miscommunication to get 48 points on the board for the Yellowjackets.
A Yellowjacket comeback was on the rise, Williams came up with two back-to-back baskets to cut the Storm lead to just 63-59 at the 2:23 mark of the second half; he then added two more after a Crown timeout to make it 65-61. On the following possession, Coleman would get a clutch 3-pointer, assisted by Scott, to make it a 66-64 game.
A Superior timeout at 20.7 seconds would give Coleman a good look at the rim, but he was met by two Storm defenders on the right side. A Yellowjacket foul ensued, but Crown was unable to knock down the one-and-one free throw, giving Superior the ball back with 4.2 remaining.
A last second 3-point attempt from Milenkovic came up short as time expired.
Coleman was the leading scorer for the Yellowjackets getting 22, and grabbing five rebounds. Williams combined for 14 points and 10 rebounds for the double-double. Kalien and Milenkovic had nine points each.
Crown's Timothy Wendel had 25 points to lead all scorers.
The Yellowjackets will host Northwestern this Wednesday, Feb. 7, at 5:30 p.m.
