BOX SCORE
WINONA, Minn. – It was a fitting NSIC semifinal game as No. 2 seed Northern State and No. 3 seed Southwest Minnesota State gave fans 40 minutes of thrilling basketball on Friday night at McCown Gymnasium. The Wolves outlasted the final push by the Mustangs to take a 74-70 win to advance to the Championship game, which will be televised live locally on Midco Channel 12. NSU will play tournament host and first seed Winona State.
The Wolves will play in their fourth NSIC Tournament Championship game, having won two Championship titles in three attempts. #4-ranked Northern State improves to 27-2 on the year and is ranked #2 in the most recent North Central Region rankings. The Mustangs fall to 17-12 overall. They came into the weekend ranked #8 in the region and will await the NCAA selection show on Sunday evening at 9:30 to determine if their season will continue. The selection show will be webstreamed on www.ncaa.com.
The Mustangs started the game with seven unanswered points and scored 14 of the game's first 18. They were successful penetrating into the paint and sat Northern's Levi Hamilton early in the half as the starting center picked up three quick fouls. NSU was cold from the field for the first ten minutes, but heated up McCown Gymnasium and made a move to come back halfway through the period.
Down 25-16 at the midpoint, Robert Thomas gave the Wolves momentum with two straight buckets in the paint sandwiching a blocked shot and rebound on the defensive end. The Wolves hit the boards with determination and improved their defense by leaps. They held the Mustangs scoreless on 12 straight trips down the court and did not let them off of the 25 point mark for eight and a half minutes.
The Wolves heated up from the field to shoot 48.1% in the half. Luke Wicks tied the game at 25-25 from the free throw line and laid in a kiss off the glass to give the Wolves their first lead of the game with 4:49 remaining. NSU's guards finished the scoring effort in the first half, receiving layups and free throws from Craig Nelson, Kyle Schwan and Dan DeWitt. The Wolves took a slim 34-30 lead into the halftime break.
Northern continued to push the score, leading by as many as 14 points in the second half, 59-45 at the 10:18 mark. But the Mustangs made a game of it with a 10-2 run in the next four minutes, started with a Matt Fletcher three-point shot. Five of these ten points came from the stripe as SMSU pushed the pace of the game off the dribble.
The Mustangs drew to within a single point, 62-61, as Kevin Andrews laid in back-to-back buckets. Luke Wicks stopped SMSU from taking the lead with a blocked shot near the four minute mark and Craig Nelson dropped in a triple to give NSU a more comfortable cushion. A Kevin Ratzsch three-pointer followed and the Wolves took a two point lead into the final minute of the game.
Kyle Schwan took the ball into the lane as the shot clock wound down, missing the layup but receiving help from teammate Hamilton with the tip-in to set the score at 70-66 with :37 seconds remaining. Ryan Krome hit a quick jumper with the foul. His missed free throw attempt was boarded by teammate Andrews, who laid the ball in to tie the game 70-70 with 27 ticks remaining. Kevin Ratzsch hit one of his most important shots of the evening, going around an SMSU defender and nearly losing the ball, but recovering to lay it in for a 72-70 lead. The Mustangs' hopes were dashed as a turnover put the ball back in the Wolves hands and Nelson sealed the win with a set of free throws.
Northern received double figure efforts from four players. Craig Nelson was the leading scorer in the game, hitting 6-of-11 shots for 21 points, the third time this season that Nelson crossed the 20-point barrier. Kevin Ratzsch was held scoreless in the first half, but dropped in 14 points in the second half. Robert Thomas had one of his strongest games of the season and was key to NSU's first half comeback. He had 13 points, five rebounds and four blocked shots in the semifinal win. Luke Wicks added ten points for the Wolves. The team shot 50.9% from the field.
Senior Travis Krenske led the SMSU effort with 14 points from 5-of-10 shooting. Four of his field goals came from long range. Krenske also led all players with four assists. Ross DeMasi posted a 12 point, 12 rebound double-double. Taylor Huseby came off the bench for 11 points. The Mustangs shot 44.1% from the field, but a meager 35.3% from three-point range. Their second half push was affected largely by success on the boards. SMSU out-rebounded the Wolves 36-28 in the game and had 22 second chance points.
