St. Bonifacius, Minn. — Crown's men's basketball team beat the UM-Morris Cougars for their fourth straight UMAC win and completes their perfect four-game conference homestand (4-1 homestand overall). Crown performed well due to an elite three-point performance, taking 33 attempts and making them at a 42% efficiency.
Leading the way for the Storm was junior Josh Volness, who scored 25 points and made six threes in the game. Volness also added six boards, a block, two steals, and five assists. Senior Austin VanDerHeyden had an incredible game, scoring 23 points, making 10 of his 15 shots (3/5 from range), and pulled down ten boards for a double-double. VanDerHeyden was also a force on the defensive end with two blocks. Sophomore Tim Wendel scored 17 points in the game, with three made three-point attempts, and was the most efficient scorer on the team making seven of his ten attempts and 50% of his three-point attempts. Only two other players recorded points for the Storm, sophomore Kole Jusczak and senior Trey Peace (both scoring six). Peace also added a team-high ten assists in the game.
Holding Morris to 67 points is no easy task, with two players that average over 22 points per game. However, solid closeouts, five team blocks, and defensive communication helped the Storm hold the talented Morris team at bay. First-year Christian Moore had two blocks and was faced with a tough defensive matchup, chasing 2016 First-Team All-UMAC and conference leading scorer CD Douglas around. The Cougars only shot 38% from the field and 22% from three-point range.
"This was another big win for us. We played probably the best defense we have all year tonight, and it carried to the offensive end," said the high-point man, Josh Volness. "We trusted each other to do our jobs, and that's what lead to this team win. Once again, my teammates were phenomenal finding me whenever I was open. Shoutout to Trey Peace for those assists!"
With Northland's conference bye coinciding with this win, Crown is now has a full game lead on the Lumberjacks and is only a game back from the four-seed in the UMAC playoffs. Crown is currently in the second wild-card spot in the playoffs and would head to UM-Morris for the wild-card round if the playoffs started today. Crown next heads to UW-Superior on Saturday, who fell to St. Scholastica (tied for first in the UMAC) today by a single point.
