Box Score

DURANGO, Colo. – The Northern State University Wolves survived a furious second-half comeback effort from the fifth-seeded Concordia University-St. Paul Golden Bears Friday night, claiming a 74-70 victory in the opening round of the NCAA Central Region Tournament.

The win is the Wolves' third over CU this season in four total meetings.  The Golden Bears' lone victory came in the semifinals of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference tournament last weekend.

With Friday's win, the Wolves move to 21-8 overall, marking NSU's best season since going 25-7 in 2005-06.  It was also NSU's first NCAA tournament win since that 05-06 campaign.

As expected, the two familiar foes battled through six ties and ten lead changes throughout the course of the night, including a late 68-68 tie after the Golden Bears sliced through what had been a 10-point Northern State lead.  

The Wolves led 62-52 after a mini 6-0 run led by freshman Alison Kusler and senior Krista Rabenberg, which forced CU to take a quick time-out with 7:00 left in the game.  The Golden Bears threw on the full-court pressure out of that time-out and used it to cut the lead to one at 62-61 over the next two minutes of action.

Rabenberg broke the NSU drought with a fast-break layup, but a persistent CU squad came charging back to forge the fifth and final tie of the night on a Jodi Batzel trey with 1:14 to go.

NSU senior Jodi Reinschmidt took care of the clean-up in the final minute, scoring all of NSU's final six points in that stretch, including two free throws with nine seconds left that iced the victory.  The senior, who finished with a game-best 23 points, also pulled down a pair of critical defensive rebounds in that stretch.

As a whole, the Wolves took care of business on the offensive end of the court, shooting 46.0 percent from the line, including a 4-for-6 effort from long range.  Junior Emily Becken, who finished with 19 points, was 3-for-3 from long range and a perfect 4 of 4 from the free throw line.

Rabenberg chipped in 16 points – all in the second half – and another nine boards for NSU.

The Golden Bears also put three in double figures led by Jineen Williams' 23.  Maurika Hickman, who dropped 30 on NSU in last weekend's tournament loss, was held to just 14 points on Friday, going just 5 of 13 from the floor.

CU, one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the NSIC, converted on just 5 of 22 attempts from long range on Friday.

The Wolves now head to the semifinal round where they will face eighth-seeded Adams State College, which knocked of top-seeded, tournament host and fifth-ranked Fort Lewis College immediately preceding NSU's victory.  Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. (MST) in the Whalen Gymnasium on the campus of FLC.