Box Score

BISMARCK, N.D. – The Northern State University men's basketball squad nearly broke a season-long road slump on Saturday night, but came up agonizingly short in a 78-81 loss to a streaking University of Mary squad in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference action.  With the victory, the host Marauders ran their current win streak to five, including three straight NSIC wins.

NSU, which picked up its first conference win last weekend over Upper Iowa, slipped to 5-9 overall and 1-6 in league play.  U-Mary, meanwhile, improved to 9-5 on the season and 5-2 in the conference while snapping a 9-game losing skid to the Wolves.

Despite giving up a 10-point lead midway through the first half, the Wolves refused to give up, battling back to take their first lead at the 4:22 mark.  Newcomer Momcilo Latinovic had five points in a 7-0 Wolves run that put the team on top.

Derek Hoellein followed with one of his four treys on the night while sophomore Alex Thomas added his own 3-point play just minutes later, giving the Wolves a 6-point lead with just over three minutes left in the stanza.

U-Mary, however, put together its own 7-0 run to close out the half and headed to the locker room with a slim 38-37 edge.

In a mirror image of the first stanza, the Marauders again put together a double-digit lead by the halfway point of the second period, going up 62-48 with 10:52 left to play.  A Jordan King 3-pointer broke a three-and-a-half minute drought in which the Wolves did not make a free throw and broke a 14-3 U-Mary run.

The Wolves quickly returned the deficit back to single digits, mounting a slow, but steady comeback that ate up most of the rest of the half.  Another King 3-pointer made it a 76-73 contest with 1:15 showing on the clock.

U-Mary's Anthony Moody, who scored a game-best 28 points on the night, sank a pair of free throws – his only makes from the line – to push the lead back to five with 31 seconds left, but NSU's Collin Pryor answered with a bucket at the 18-second mark.

The Wolves fouled immediately on U-Mary's next possession, then caught a break when the Marauders' Cameron Lee misfired on his second attempt, giving the Wolves a glimmer of hope.  However, NSU came up empty on a 3-point attempt with 12 seconds left.  U-Mary gathered up the defensive rebound and ran six seconds off the clock before the Wolves managed to foul.

Baley Johnson, a reserve guard who was 1-for-2 from the line to that point, sank both free tosses to push the advantage back to six at 81-75.  King buried another trey at the buzzer to make it an 81-75 final, but it was too little too late for the Wolves, who have now dropped three of four games coming out of the Christmas break.

As a team, the Wolves had four players in double figures, led by King's career-high 16, and shot a solid 53.7 percent from the floor, but could not overcome a 12-for-23 effort (52.2 percent) from the free throw line.  NSU also gave up 15 offensive rebounds and a 19-7 edge in points off turnovers.

Hoellein added 13 points for the Wolves, while Pryor and Thomas chipped in 10 apiece.

U-Mary, in addition to Moody's 28-point effort, got 20 points and 11 rebounds from Eric Erdmann as the two combined for nine of the Marauders' 12 treys on the night.  Jordan Wilhelm added 14 points and eight boards for the Marauders.

The Wolves remain on the road next weekend, heading off to Bemidji State on Friday and Minnesota-Duluth on Saturday.  Both games are slated for 8 p.m. tip-offs.