BOX SCORE

ABERDEEN, S.D. - Trailing at the half for just the fourth time this season, Northern State's men's basketball team relied on strong second half shooting to propel themselves to a 71-64 NSIC win over Concordia-St. Paul Friday night at Wachs Arena.  The 24th ranked Wolves are 13-1 on the season and 4-1 in the NSIC, while CSP falls to 8-5 overall and 2-2 in league play.  The victory marked NSU head coach Don Meyer's 875th win of his career and puts him just one game behind Adolph Rupp, who occupies third place on the NCAA all-time wins list.

It was a low scoring first half filled with turnovers from each team.  The Wolves led by  a small margin for most of the half, but a late scoring drought opened the door for the Golden Bears, who snuck in to take a 28-24 lead as the teams went into their locker rooms.  The teams combined for 20 first half turnovers.

The Wolves shot an uncharacteristic 36.8% from the field and sunk just two three-pointers and seven total field goals in the half.  Concordia shot 45.0% from the field and hit four threes and nine field goals.  Levi Hamilton led NSU with eight points in the half, six of which came from the charity stripe.

A Kyle Schwan layup and Craig Nelson three-pointer gave the Wolves the lead early in the second half.  Concordia answered with field goals of their own, but Northern continued to work the ball down low and led 39-33 five minutes into the period.  Turning to their usual strength in outside shooting, Nelson and Ratzsch sunk three straight long range shots for the Wolves to put NSU up 49-38 with 12 minutes to play.  The Golden Bears had their own string of three-pointers to get back to within four points, 51-47.

Layups and free throws were the highlight of Northern's next stretch of points, although a three-pointer from Ratzsch put the Wolves up 61-53 with 4:37 to play.  As time clicked down, the Golden Bears fought to come back but Northern sealed the win at the free throw line, hitting six of eight free shots in the final minute before finishing with a 71-64 win.

Ratzsch dumped in 19 points from 8-of-15 shooting and also had seven rebounds.  Hamilton had 13 points, followed by Nelson who had four three-pointers and 12 total points.  Schwan was the fourth NSU player to score in double figures, rounding out the list with ten points.  Wicks had nine points, all of which came from the free throw line.

The Wolves shot 55.6% from the field in the second half to set their game total at 47.8% (22-46).  They connected on 50% of three-point shots and out-rebounded the Golden Bears 32-28.

Craig Heiman was the leading Golden Bear with 17 points and seven rebounds.  He hit 4-of-11 three-pointers.  Matt Cadwell had 13 points, followed by James Metcalf with 12.

The Wolves host MSU Moorhead tomorrow evening at 8:00 p.m.