ST. BONIFACIUS, Minn. -- The UW-Superior men's basketball team shot 56 percent from the field in the second half on the way to a 86-75 victory over Crown in Upper Midwest Athletic Conference action at the Wild Athletic Center on Friday.
UWS (7-6, 3-1 UMAC) received 12 points apiece from senior
Josef Fahrenholtz (Chatfield, Minn./Chatfield) and junior
T.J. Moberg (Champlin, Minn./Champlin Park) after halftime as Superior broke a 39-39 deadlock at the break for its fourth consecutive victory and second straight over the Polars. Fahrenholtz and Moberg finished with 18 and a career-high 14 points, respectively, leading four in double figures. Sophomore
Reid Johnson (Chatfield, Minn./Chatfield) and senior
Levy Miguel (Luanda, Angola/Canarias Basketball Academy) each added 11 points to help offset 23 points and nine rebounds from Crown's Seth Royston.
UWS finished the night 36-for-67 (53.7 percent) from the floor, including hitting 19-of-34 (55.8 percent) in the final 20 minutes, to open it up.
Crown (9-7, 0-4) led by as many as 10 at 18-8 at the 12:26 mark in the first half on a Jacob Van Dam jumper before UWS cut the deficit to four points over the next four minutes.
Andrew Kunelius (Caledonia, Minn./Caledonia) started the run with a 3-pointer making it an 18-11 game prior to
Reid Johnson (Chatfield, Minn./Chatfield) canning a trey with 8:39 before the half, cutting it to a 24-20 lead.
Junior
J'Vaun Walker (Rosharon, Texas/Manvel) grabbed a steal and misfired on a jumper at the 6:44 mark. Johnson, though, gathered the rebound and Walker had a second try, this time knocking down his shot in the paint, to slice the Crown edge to 26-24.
Neither team led by more than five points the rest of the half with sophomore
Jayden Fitch (Fall Creek, Wis./Fall Creek) beating the intermission buzzer with bucket for the tie.
The Yellowjackets jumped out to an 11-point advantage in the first 5:06 of the second half and didn't look back. Royston cut the lead to 66-61 with a jumper, assisted by Jacob Masek. Royston knocked in a triple one minute later to make it 68-66. The Polars whittled the lead to one possession on three more occasions before UWS closed the game with a 12-4 run for the win.
Crown held a 31-29 advantage in rebounding and got 18 points from Cade Carroll, but allowed UWS 19 points from 14 turnovers.
UWS next heads to Minnesota Morris Saturday at 3 p.m.
