Two of Division III's top-25 scoring offenses squared off on Tuesday night in the championship game of the eighth annual Nicolet National Bank Holiday Tournament hosted by St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wis.
 
John Carroll (7-2) knocked off 18th-ranked and previously unbeaten St. Norbert (9-1) 80-70.

"We're very excited for the kids," said assistant coach Frank O'Brien. "Coach Moran preached that we could beat this team if we did the things that we've worked on since day one. We came out and shot the ball well. Defensively, we stopped a very good team in their perimeter shooting. They were about 45 percent from the 3-point line coming in and probably had their worst shooting night of the season."
 
John Carroll fell behind 11-2 just over four minutes into the game as the Green Knights connected on five of their first seven shots.
 
The Blue Streaks responded with a 7-0 run to make it an 11-9 game with 14:12 remaining in the first half. Jake Hollinger capped the run with the last four points including an emphatic slam dunk on the fast break.
 
John Carroll pulled ahead 14-13 with 12:12 remaining in the stanza on a jumper by senior David Hendrickson.
 
An 8-0 run by the "Men of Carroll" gave the Blue and Gold a six-point advantage at 24-18 with just under eight minutes left in the opening frame. The Blue Streaks received 3-pointers from Hendrickson and Will Starks during the run.
 
The Blue Streaks led by as many as nine in the first half after Wallack's third trifecta of the frame. The Green Knights cut JCU's lead to 43-35 at the break.
 
St. Norbert cut John Carroll's lead to one at 50-49 with 14:07 remaining in the game. The Blue Streaks responded with an 11-2 run to open up a 10 point lead. John Carroll's big men took over with Doug Caputo and Hollinger combining for eight of the points.
 
St. Norbert would not pull closer than four points for the rest of the game.
 
Caputo finished with a game-high 18 points and added eight rebounds. The sophomore was name the tournament's most outstanding player.

Said O'Brien, "We're very, very happy for Doug. He's a hardworking, young man and could be a very, very good player for us for the next two and a half years."

Hollinger and Wallack both joined Caputo on the all-tournament team and each finished with 14 points.

"I'm happy for those guys," said O'Brien. "Jake's a senior. He's been a captain for the last two years. Danny's been in a little bit of a slump coming into this tournament and he picked up his game to give us a tremendous boost."

The Green Knights, who entered the week first in all of Division III with a 55.2 percent field goal percentage, were held to 31-of-68 shooting (45.6 percent) for the game. St. Norbert also gave up 15 points over its season average entering the week.

Said O'Brien, "It was a very well-coached team we went up against. We have all the respect in the world for St. Norbert. We're very excited for this team."

John Carroll took care of the ball exceptionally well only turning it over seven time for the game.
 
John Carroll returns to action with a 3 p.m. contest on Saturday, Jan. 3 against Nazareth College in Hamburg, N.Y. The Blue Streaks will participate in the two-day Hilbert Hawks Tip-Off Tourney that was originally scheduled for back in November but was postponed due to heavy snowfall in the Buffalo area.