SUPERIOR, Wis. -- The UW-Superior basketball team held off hard-charging Central for a 63-57 victory in the opening round of the 12th-annual Merrill Thompson Classic sponsored by National Bank of Commence on Friday at Mertz Mortorelli Gymnasium.
The Yellowjackets (2-0) built a 49-39 lead with less than 12 minutes remaining only to see the Dutch claw their way back and tie the game at 57-57 with 52 seconds remaining on a Kaleb Brand 3-pointer. Following a Central timeout and Kade Terrell foul, junior
Joey Barker (Superior, Wis./Superior Senior) had his shot blocked by Kole Tupa. Sophomore
Andrew Kunelius (Caledonia, Minn./Caledonia) gathered the rebound and
T.J. Moberg (Champlin, Minn./Champlin Park) found
Josef Fahrenholtz (Chatfield, Minn./Chatfield) for the go-ahead jumper with 15 seconds on the clock.
The win puts UWS in the championship of its tournament for the fifth consecutive event. Superior is set to play UW-Platteville, which is receiving votes in the D3hoops.com preseason top 25 poll, Saturday at 3 p.m. The Pioneers topped Lawrence, 82-71, in the first game of the day.
Fahrenholtz led all players with 17 points on 8-for-16 shooting and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds to help UWS win its first two games of the year for the first time since the 2011-12 season when it bested Northland and Finlandia.
UWS earned a 29-26 halftime advantage on the strength of 14 points from 10 Central (0-2) turnovers. The Dutch then opened the second half with five quick points to take the lead at 31-29 on a Tupa jumper prior to the 'Jackets responding with a 20-8 run that gave them the double-digit edge with 11:39 left. Five different players contributed points in the stretch, led by Barker and Fahrenholtz, with six each.
Superior shot 41 percent from the floor as a team and knocked down six 3-pointers on the night. Barker was the only other UWS player in double figures with 12 points while
J'Vaun Walker (Rosharon, Texas/Manvel) finished with nine points, four assists and three steals.
Brand led three Central players in double digits with 14 points and Josh Van Gorp collected a game-high 13 of the team's 36 rebounds as the Dutch held a plus-10 margin on the glass.
