Box Score

BISMARCK, N.D. – The 19th ranked University of Mary Marauders put an end to the Northern State University men's basketball season on Saturday, using a big second half to pull away from the Wolves and hand them a 75-47 decision.

NSU ends the season, the first under head coach Paul Sather, at 12-14 overall and 8-14 in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference play.  U-Mary moves to 22-4 overall and 18-4 in the loop and will host a first round NSIC tournament playoff game for the first time in school history on Wednesday.

The Wolves kept things close in the first half despite allowing 14 second chance points to the Marauders, a large portion of those coming from Damon Smith, who had six offensive rebounds and 15 of U-Mary's 27 points in the opening stanza.

NSU countered with strong outside shooting, going 4 of 8 from long range to keep the pace.  The Wolves had sprinted out to a 13-6 advantage early on, but fell into a scoreless slump that spanned nearly eight minutes that allowed the Marauders to turn the early deficit into an 18-15 advantage by the 7:44 mark.

U-Mary took a 27-22 lead into the break, but exploded for 48 points in the second half to seal the victory.  The Marauders went 18-for-29 from the floor in that half including a 7-for-13 effort from 3-point range.  NSU, in contrast, shot just 33.3 percent in the second half and went 1-for-7 from downtown.

Senior Tom Parks paced the Wolves with 10 points, the lone NSU player to reach double digits.  Sophomore Collin Pryor finished with nine points, but a quartet of  Marauder starters in double figures thwarted any NSU comeback efforts.

Smith paced the Marauders with 17 points and 10 rebounds.  Jordan Wilhelm added another 17 points and just missed his own double-double effort with nine boards.  Eric Erdmann and Anthony Moody finished with 13 and 12, respectively.