SUPERIOR, Wis. -- The UW-Superior men's basketball team shot over 51 percent in the second half in a 72-61 victory over Crown to close the regular season at Mertz Mortorelli Gymnasium on Saturday.
 
With the win, the Yellowjackets (16-9, 10-4 UMAC) claimed the No. 2 seed in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference tournament and will host third-seeded Northwestern in the semifinals Wednesday at 7 p.m.
 
UWS broke open a 30-30 deadlock at halftime as junior J'Vaun Walker (Rosharon, Texas/Manvel) scored 22 of his game-high 28 points in the second half to lift Superior to victory. UWS shot 51.6 percent in the stanza, hitting 16 field goals, including 5-of-9 from distance to provide separation.
 
T.J. Moberg (Champlin, Minn./Champlin Park) scored 14 points and Josef Fahrenholtz (Chatfield, Minn./Chatfield) had 11 and eight rebounds in support of Walker. UWS recorded a season sweep of the Polars (15-11, 6-8) and have now won six of its last seven games against Crown.
 
Tied at 44-all with 14:08 on the clock, UWS engineered an 11-2 run over the next four minutes punctuated by a 3-pointer from sophomore Andrew Kunelius (Caledonia, Minn./Caledonia). A pair of Walker free throws pushed the Superior advantage to double digits at 60-49 with 8:19 to play. Later, a Walker trey and jumper gave UWS a 67-54 lead with 4:29 left which grew to as many as 18 points on another Kunelius triple with 3:15 remaining. 
 
Cade Carroll paced Crown with 16 points on 6-for-12 shooting, while Jacob Masek tallied 12 points, five assists and four boards. Seth Royston tallied nine points and 13 rebounds.
 
The Yellowjackets were outrebounded, 40-29, on the day, but the Polars turned the ball over 17 times compared to just 10 for UWS. Superior finished with 10 steals as Walker, Levy Miguel (Luanda, Angola/Canarias Basketball Academy), Joey Barker (Superior, Wis./Superior Senior) and Kunelius each swiped two.