St. Bonifacius, Minn. — Senior Austin VanDerHeyden became Crown's leading scorer on Saturday afternoon on his first made basket of his eventual 20 point day. Behind VanDerHeyden's and sophomore Tim Wendel's performances, Crown was able to avenge their early-season loss to North Central with ease, beating the Rams 87-63. Crown took an early lead behind Wendel's ten points in the first four minutes of the game, and with the team making their first six of seven three-point attempts, they never looked back, holding a 15-point lead at halftime and expanding on it outscoring the Rams by nine in the second half.
VanDerHeyden passes James Brown who set the all-time mark last year (1,375 points) and was VanDerHeyden's teammate for three years. "Ugh, he couldn't have let me savor the record for a year at least?! He just had to beat it already [sarcasm of course]," said Brown. "There is no one I would rather beat it than one of my great friends and one of the best dudes I've ever played with in my basketball career. He earned it," Brown continued. "Happy for the guy, only wish I could have been there to witness it. I knew the record was bound to get broken and I'm just happy to be written down in the record books even if it was only for a year. I want him to savor the moment and realize that not everyone can accomplish something like that. So congratulations to the big masked man, love that dude."
VanDerHeyden is already Crown's all-time leading rebounder, which happened last year when VanDerHeyden was Brown's teammate. VanDerHeyden was 9/12 from the field with 20 points, six rebounds, and three assists in his game performance. He was also two of two from three-point land.
In other non-VanDerHeyden news, Tim Wendel was Crown's leading scorer with 23 points on only ten shot attempts. He made six of his eight three-pointers, only one shy of Crown's single-game mark. Wendel added eight rebounds, four assists, and four steals. Junior Josh Volness made four of six three-pointers of his own and added four rebounds and five assists.
Logan Strand had a career-high 13 points and also pulled down seven boards (three offensive). He also had two steals and two assists with the best statistic line he's put up as a member of the Storm. Senior Trey Peace also had six rebounds, with three offensive boards. First-year Jacob Sowers made his first two career baskets for Crown, two free throws.
Crown ended the game shooting exactly 50% from the field and did so in each of the halves. They made 14 of their 30 three-point attempts for an impressive 46.7% mark. With Crown's second UMAC win of the week, they are now 5-5 in conference play and are now sitting in a UMAC Playoff spot. Crown hosts one more game in their homestand, UM-Morris on Wednesday.
