SUPERIOR, Wis. – In the marquee matchup on opening night of NCAA III men's basketball, the 8^th-ranked Nebraska Wesleyan Prairie Wolves used a huge second half to roll past 12^th-ranked Saint John's 78-56 on day one of the Merrill Thompson Classic hosted by UW-Superior on Friday night (Nov. 8) in Superior, Wis.
 
The Prairie Wolves trailed 25-22 at halftime, then opened the second half on a 21-5 run on their way to outscoring the Johnnies 56-31 in the second 20 minutes.  NWU had the same amount of points in the second half as St. John's did for the entire game.
 
NWU shot 63.3 percent from the floor in the final 20 minutes going 21-33 overall and 8-14 on 3-point attempts.  They opened the game shooting just 33.3 percent in the first half.
 
Early in the 2^nd half, Saint John's had a 30-29 lead with 17:44 left in the game.  From there, NWU went on a 16-0 run over the next four minutes to get up 45-30 and the Johnnies were stunned.  A basket by St. John's ended the run, however the Prairie Wolves then score the next five points to get up by 18 points just nine minutes into the half.
 
SJU actually led by nine points early in the game at 15-6 with 12:13 to play as NWU scored only six points the first eight minutes of the game. 
 
Saint John's, the preseason favorite to win the MIAC, had no answer for the NWU backcourt combination of seniors Nate Schimonitz and Jack Hiller.  The duo accounted for all 22 points in the first half for the Prairie Wolves, then took their game to another level in the second half.
 
Hiller caught fire from long distance making 6-7 from 3-point range to score a game-high 27 points.  He was 9-12 overall on the night.  Schimonitz, a preseason All-American in Street & Smith magazine, came out on a mission to prove that he deserved to be on the All-American list in every national publication. 
 
The Creighton Prep grad had a double-double of 26 points and 10 rebounds, the second time in his career he had a double-double and first time since Feb. 18, 2017 in his freshman year.  He also added team-high's with seven steals and six assists.
 
Clay Reimers was the other NWU player in double figures on the night scoring 11 points, all in the second half.  Reimers also pulled down eight rebounds.
 
Nebraska Wesleyan now advances to the championship game of the tournament on Saturday where they will face the winner of Wisconsin-Superior and Marian (Wis.) at 5 pm.