Box Score

ABERDEEN, S.D. – Southwest Minnesota State held the lead for the bulk of the night, but it was the Northern State Wolves who found themselves on top when the final buzzer sounded, as NSU pulled out a 78-70 victory over SMSU Saturday night in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference men's basketball action.

In earning their first home victory since the conference opener on Dec. 3, the Wolves moved to 7-9 on the season and 3-9 in conference play while SMSU slipped to 6-9 overall and 3-8 in the loop.

The Mustangs led early, then pulled away from a 10-10 tie to post a 26-17 edge with less than a minute and a half to go in a low-scoring first half,  NSU, however, closed the stanza with five straight points and cut the lead to 26-22 heading into the break.  Senior Tom Parks capped the half with a conventional 3-point play with four seconds left on the clock.

The Wolves mustered just a 31.0 percent shooting effort in the first half, but turned up the heat in the second half, knocking down 16 of their 26 attempts (61.5 percent) from the floor in the late comeback effort.

SMSU held on to its lead coming out of intermission and again pushed it back up to nine at 54-45 with just over ten minutes left in the second half.  Two Brett Newton layups sandwiched around a pair of Parks free throws cut it to three points over the next two minutes before Parks drilled a trey in front of the Northern bench to forge the first tie of the second half.

The two teams traded the lead back and forth before yet another Parks bucket put the Wolves ahead for good with 3:58 to go in the game.  Despite season-long free throw struggles, the Wolves converted on 13 of 17 free throw attempts in the final four minutes to keep the Mustangs at bay.  NSU also did not allow an offensive rebound in those final four minutes to one of the top offensive rebounding teams in the league.

Aided by a 13-point effort in the second half, Parks notched a team-high 15 points, as did sophomore forward Collin Pryor, who also turned in a solid second half and was 5 of 6 from the line to help seal the victory.  Sophomore Dustin Tetzlaff, who was also 5 of 6 from the charity stripe, added 13 points and 11 rebounds for his third double-double of the season.  All ten players on the floor scored at least one point.

SMSU sophomore Jordan Miller notched a game-best 20 points and four assists to lead three Mustangs in double figures.  Senior forward Scott Roehl added 14 while Vinard Birch had 10.

NSU concludes its first swing through conference play next weekend, remaining at home to host the University of Mary.  The Marauders are coming off a big upset victory over tenth-ranked Minnesota State on Friday night and are 12-4 overall and 8-4 heading into next week's showdown.  Tip-off is slated for 8 p.m. in Wachs Arena.