11/30/06

UW-Superior’s James Nobles sank a pair of free throws with 14 seconds remaining to give the Yellowjackets a 68-67 lead and Dwight Hill put back his own missed shot with four seconds on the clock to clinch the comeback for the visitors who won their first game of the season with the 70-67 victory over St. Scholastica on the Saints’ home court at the Reif Center on Thursday evening.

Senior Will Maupins had the first triple-double of his career -- and the first triple-double in Saints men's basketball history -- in the loss for St. Scholastica. His 15 points led the team – for the fourth game in a row – and he added 10 rebounds and 10 assists in the losing effort.

Nobles led all scorers with 21 points and Leonard Cobb had a game-high 14 boards for the ’Jackets.

St. Scholastica took a 39-32 lead into the intermission behind Eric Langdon’s eight points and a quartet of teammates that scored six apiece in the opening half.

With 2:42 to play before halftime, Saints senior Derek Johnson nailed a 3-pointer that gave St. Scholastica an eight point lead. The basket pushed his career total to 1,000 points as he became only the seventh St. Scholastica men’s basketball player to reach that plateau. Johnson finished with nine points on the night and now sits at 1,006 for his career.

Both team’s shooting statistics in the second half were nearly identical to their own first half stats, but Superior hit 3-of-9 three-pointers in the final 20 minutes compared with only 1-of-3 in the first that helped erase the halftime deficit. Meanwhile, the Saints didn’t get as many looks at the basket as they had in the initial half, taking eight fewer shots and scoring only 29 points in the closing period.

The loss drops the Saints record to 1-5 overall while UW-Superior improves to 1-4 on the season.