BOX SCORE
ABERDEEN, S.D. – Coach Curt Fredrickson's Northern State women fought tooth-and-nail with the visiting Wayne State Wildcats Friday, but the #3 ranked team in the region got some big buckets to fall when they had to en route to a 76-70 NSIC victory Friday at Wachs Arena in Aberdeen, S.D.
The loss drops the Wovles to 13-11 overall and 9-8 in the very tough Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. Now 9-8 in the conference, the Wolves fall out of sole position of sixth in the conference standings into a tie with Southwest Minnesota State and Winona State. As of right now, the Wolves would hold the tiebreaker over Winona State and will close out the regular season at home against Southwest Minnesota State on February 27th.
Northern State opened up their first half trailing 17-13 with about 11 minutes to go, but they then rattled off a 26-12 run to end the first stanza and entered halftime up 39-29.
All the momentum Northern State garnered in the first half was quickly erased once action started in the second, because the Wildcats battled back to take the lead 46-40 with 14:08 to go in the period.
The two teams continued to battle through the remainder of the half with neither team being able to build a lead larger than seven points in its entirety.
A layup by sophomore Mikayla Barondeau left the Wolves down 67-70 with 34 seconds remaining, but an ensuing foul and two good free throws by the Wildcats kept the visitors up five at 72-67.
The Wolves came right back down and drew up a play for their marksman, Emily Becken, who knocked down her fifth three-pointer of the night to bring the Wolves back within two, 72-70 with 16 seconds to go.
Another foul and two made free throws put the Wolves back down four at 74-70, and their next trip down the court resulted in no points. The Wildcats then made their next round of foul shots to put the game away for good 76-70.
The afore mentioned Barondeau led the Wolves with a career-high tying 26 points on 9-15 shooting from the floor, including 3-5 from downtown. She added nine rebounds and three assists while playing all 40 minutes of the ball game.
Fellow sophomore Emily Becken was next for the squad, finishing with 19 points on 7-18 shooting. She was 5-14 from three-point land on the night and added a career-high nine rebounds and dished out five assists (zero turnovers) while also spending the entire game on the court.
Junior Krista Rabenberg was the third member of the team in double figures, finishing with 15 points on 7-11 shooting from the floor. She added four rebounds and three blocks in 28 minutes of action.
The Wolves are back at it tomorrow night when they host the #4 ranked team in the region, Augustana College, in Northern Sun action.
Northern State University is an NCAA Division II affiliated school participating in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference and is located in Aberdeen, South Dakota.
**GO WOLVES**
