St. Bonifacius, Minn. — Crown hoped to rebound from their recent loss against UM-Morris at home against the Finlandia Lions on Friday night, but couldn't get in a rhythm as they fell to the Lions 73-77. 

Crown's men took the lead and were up eight with seven minutes left in the second half, but costly fouls and turnovers gave Finlandia a chance to steal the game late. Down four with the shot clock turned off and time ticking down, Wendel hit a bucket to get the game within two. After Trey Peace forced a jump ball and with the arrow in Crown's favor, they were able to gain the last possession. Tim Wendel was able to find Austin VanDerHeyden for a layup try with only seconds remaining on the clock, but the bucket didn't fall as Finlandia was able to prevent Crown's overtime attempt.

Leading the offense on Friday night was Tim Wendel, who scored 23 points on 10 of 15 from the field, and made three of six shots from beyond the arc. Wendel also added eight rebounds, two assists, two blocks and a steal. 

Austin VanDerHeyden was able to score 19 points, but only made 6 of his 16 field goal attempts. VanDerHeyden had the play of the game as he had his first collegiate dunk on a feed from Christian Moore in the second half during their dominate run where they took the lead by eight. VanDerHeyden also had two blocks and seven rebounds in the game. Moore was a single rebound away from a double-double, with nine rebounds and scoring ten points (two of four from three). Moore also added two assists and a steal.

D'Andre Caster made three of his four attempts from the field for six points, and Logan Strand added four rebounds as leading contributors off of Crown's bench. Josh Volness scored well below his average with only nine points, as he missed all four of his attempts from beyond the arc. 

Crown hopes to bounce back quickly with another home game tomorrow, with Iowa's Luther College coming to town to take on the Storm at 3 pm.