Fremont, Nebraska — The Northwestern College men’s basketball team rolled to its seventh consecutive win, downing Midland 85-56, in a conference game played Saturday afternoon in Fremont, Neb.
Northwestern improves to 12-5 in the conference and sits alone in fourth place in the current GPAC standings with three games left to play in the regular season. They are 17-5 overall.
Alex Van Kalsbeek poured in game-high 25 points to got with six rebounds and six assists. Van Kalsbeek has scored in double figures in 21 of the Raiders 22 games and has hit 20+ points in 12 games. Craig Sterk contributed 21 points and eight boards while Matt Onken netted a career-high 11, making all four of his field goal attempts, coming off the bench.
A back-and-forth first half that featured five ties and 10 lead changes resulted with a 42-39 Northwestern lead. Both teams shot well in the opening frame; the Raiders at 63% and Midland at 52%.
Northwestern scored the first seven points of the second half and dominated the host Warriors on both ends of the floor for the entirety of the final period. A 9-0 run finished off by a Grant DeMeulenaere gave the Raiders their first 20-point lead (66-45) with 9:14 left and head coach Kris Korver’s squad continue to build its lead up to 29 points with just over a minute left.
Northwestern continued to shoot well in the second half (55%) while also limiting Mildand to just 17% shooting and five made field goals over the final 20 minutes.
The Raiders shot 59% for the game, 40% (8/20) from the three-point line, and held a big edge on the boards, 44-22.
Bo Sandquist led Midland with 14 points and Emanuel Bryson contributed 12; the Warriors (2-14 GPAC, 4-15 overall) shot 34% for the game.
