ORANGE CITY, Iowa – A career-high performance from Matt Onken of 41 points with seven made 3-pointers propelled the (RV) Northwestern College men’s basketball team (19-9, 11-7 GPAC) to a 98-70 victory and season sweep over the Mount Marty Lancers (7-21, 3-15 GPAC), as head coach Kris Korver notches his 500th career victory at the helm of the Raider basketball program this afternoon inside the Bultman Center.
Coach Korver’s major career milestone of 500 career victories ultimately came in front of the Raider faithful and on Senior Day inside the Bultman Center. In his 22+ seasons in Orange City, Korver has coached 28 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletic (NAIA) All-Americans, one NAIA Player of the Year (Brandon Woudstra, 2003), seven Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) Players of the Year, five trips to the NAIA semifinals, and two NAIA national titles (2001, 2003).
The Raiders celebrated five seniors on this year’s roster, including the work of student-manager Becca Nevin. The five seniors are Austin Alexander, Grant DeMeulenaere, Trent Hilbrands, Noah Slagter, and Jesse Van Wyk. For more on the seniors, check out the linked Senior Day insert at the top of the story.
Onken (R-So., Marshall, Minn./Marshall) becomes the first Raider to score 40+ points in a game since current assistant coach Colton Kooima scored 51 points against Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) foe Concordia (Neb.) back on December 15, 2017 also inside the Bultman Center. Onken also drilled a career-high seven 3-pointers on 7-for-10 from deep and 15-for-21 shooting from the floor.
The Onken show began right away with the first bucket of the day being a 3-point bucket from the top of the key to give the Raiders a 3-2 advantage and Northwestern would never lose the lead the rest of the way. Though the Lancers battled in the first half thanks to 11 points from Tyrell Harper and 10 from Nick Coleman. The two teams traded buckets as the Raiders never built a lead larger than nine until late in the first half.
With four and a half minutes remaining in the opening half, Northwestern opened up their first double-digit lead of the contest on a Slagter (Willmar, Minn./Willmar) jumper. That lead would get up to 12 before a 10-2 Mount Marty run would cut that lead to four at the break, 39-35 Northwestern.
Shooting lights out 75.6% (22-for-29) from the floor was the difference in the second half, as the Raiders could not miss from anywhere on the court. Starting the half with a 7-2 run, but Mount Marty would linger keeping within 10 points of the Raiders until 15 minutes left. Eight straight points from Onken, of his 29 second half points, led to a Conner Geddes (Fr., Sioux Falls, S.D./Harrisburg) 3-pointer that gave all the momentum to the Raiders and they would sprint on from that point forward.
A 10-0 Raider run midway through the half put the game out of reach, as the Raiders led by 22 (76-54) with under 10 to play. After another Onken layup with 8:22 left on the clock, Northwestern would never let Mount Marty within 20 points again.
After Onken’s seventh three of the day, the Raider fans inside the Bultman Center stood for a round of applause as the Raiders extended their lead to 81-58 with eight minutes left to play. The Raiders were lethal from deep in the second half, converting on 72.7% (8-for-11) of the 3’s they took to jump out to their largest lead of 33 points late in the second half.
As a team, the Raiders shot 63.3% from the floor to Mount Marty’s 48.3%, while Northwestern shot nearly double the percentage the Lancers did from 3-point range (65.0% to 33.3%).
Not to be overshadowed, Alex Van Kalsbeek (So., Orange City, Iowa/MOC-Floyd Valley) dropped 22 points and dished out six assists in the win tonight. Hilbrands (Sr., Remsen, Iowa/Le Mars Community) contributed 12 points and a tie for the team-high five rebounds. DeMeulenaere (Altoona, Iowa/Grand View Christian) also dished out five assists and had a game-high eight assists.
Up Next: The Raiders welcomes Dordt (19-8, 11-7 GPAC) to the Bultman Center on Wednesday night to complete the season series with the Defenders with tip-off slated for 7:45 p.m.
