Contact: Jenna McElroy, Sports Info & Social Media Intern, mcelroy@midwestconference.org
 
GRINNELL, Iowa – After a one-year hiatus, the 2019 Midwest Conference (MWC) Men’s Basketball Tournament is returning to St. Norbert College as the Green Knights earned hosting rights after winning the MWC regular season. St. Norbert is making its 12th tournament appearance in a row and is serving as host for the eighth time in ten years.
 
The Green Knights will face No. 4 seed Monmouth College in Friday's second semifinal at 7:00 p.m. following the matchup between No. 2 Grinnell College and No. 3 Lake Forest College in the first semifinal at 5:00 p.m. Tournament information, including the video and results, can be found on the championship page.
 
Both games will be a rematch of the final games of the regular season where Grinnell rallied to beat Lake Forest and the defending tournament champion Monmouth took down St. Norbert to clinch its spot in the postseason. The Pioneers return to the MWC Tournament for the first time since 2015 while the rest of the field is making a repeat appearance from last season, including the fourth in a row for the Foresters.
 
To no one’s surprise, Grinnell leads the Conference in scoring with 118.4 points per game. Although Lake Forest is nearly 35 points behind, the Foresters still rank second in the league at 84.5 points per game while shooting an MWC best .509 from the field. The Pioneers take the most three-pointers in the league by far, but Lake Forest makes up for it with accuracy as they connect on an MWC best .417 percent while playing the best three-point defense as they allow teams to shoot just .338 from behind the arc. Grinnell is no slouch on defense either as the Pioneers lead the Conference in blocked shots with 142, 73 more than the next closest and steals with 352, an astonishing 173 more than second place.
 
Leading Grinnell and the Conference in individual steals at 1.8 per game is Vinny Curta who also is second in scoring at 25.2 points per game. Key players to watch on the perimeter are Hannes Kogelnik, Zack Stice, and Jackson Qualley who have made 110, 81, and 79 threes respectively this season. Brad Geiman is the Pioneers defensive leader as he averages 5.4 rebounds and 2.7 blocks per game. Geiman has a total of 64 blocks on the season which is 25 more than teammate Will Bebee’s 39 in second.
 
As a team, the Pioneers may be known as the three-point shooters, but it’s Lake Forest’s Sam Husting who is one of the best long-range shooters in the MWC. Against Grinnell in the last game of the regular season, Husting made 11-of-14 three-pointers to tie the school record and ranks second with 91 made for the season on .489 shooting.
 
The Forester offense also features the Conference’s fifth-leading scorer in Sean Espinosa and the second most efficient shooter in Danny Sotos. Espinosa averages 18.1 points per game while doling out 4.2 assists, matching Curta with 1.8 steals per game. Sotos is averaging 14.5 points while shooting .563 from the field.
 
Grinnell came back from 11-point first half deficits to win both games between the two teams in the regular season. The winner will move on to the tournament final against either St. Norbert or Monmouth.
 
Monmouth has a tough assignment as it looks to beat MWC Champion St. Norbert in back-to-back games and this time the Green Knights will have the advantage of playing at home. Last Saturday, the Scots beat St. Norbert behind hot three-point shooting from D.J. Swift to grab the fourth seed and a rematch with the Green Knights. The first matchup between the teams was also the first game of the Conference season. St. Norbert forced the Scots into 17 turnovers as it showed defense would be the key to its game this season.
 
The Green Knights allowed a league-low 68.6 points per game on the second lowest field goal percentage of .445. That defense will have to try and contain the Conference’s leading scorer Will Carius who is averaging 25.4 per game this season along with a league-best 11.2 rebounds per game. Behind Carius is Swift who is averaging 15.8 points per game and had back-to-back 23-point performances in the last two games to help Monmouth clinch its playoff spot.
 
St. Norbert’s offense features three players averaging over ten points and two more just under. Joe Ciriacks and Connor Curtis lead the team at 14.6 and 14.5 points per game, respectively, with Jared Murphy’s 10.2 rounding out the three in double-digits. Wade Geenan and Joe Lemon are just shy of ten as both average 8.8 per game.
 
The Green Knights are looking for their seventh NCAA Division III Tournament appearance in the last ten years and first since 2016 while the Pioneers haven’t reached the national tournament since 2001.
 
The winners of the Friday night semi-finals will advance to Saturday’s MWC Tournament final set to start at 3:00 p.m. The winner of the championship game receives the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament.
 
Admission to the MWC tournament is $5 for adults and $3 for students and youth. Children under 3 are free. MWC students, faculty and staff with valid campus identification will be admitted free of charge.