Box Score Box Score

ABERDEEN, S.D. – Taking the court for the first time in more than two weeks, the Northern State Wolves knocked off some early rust, battling back through a physical second half and converting on late free throws to take a 71-66 win over Upper Iowa in a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference version of Monday night hoops.
 
The win, the first of the 2012 calendar year for the Wolves, snaps what was a three-game losing skid to end 2011 and lifts the Wolves to 7-4 overall and 3-4 in league play.  The visiting Peacocks, meanwhile, slipped to 3-7 overall with its fifth straight loss and remain winless in conference games at 0-6.
 
The Wolves relied heavily on junior forwards Collin Pryor and Dustin Tetzlaff throughout the night, as the pair combined to score 42 of the team's 71 points.  Pryor ended the night with 23 points, 11 of which came at the free throw line.
 
Pryor was a key component of the Wolves' solid stretch of free throw shooting down the stretch.  As a team, the Wolves converted on 16 of 18 free throw attempts in the final 6:01 of the game after going 6-for-15 in the 34 minutes of play prior to that point.  Pryor was 9-for-10 in that final push to help the Wolves gain and preserve the lead.
 
Before that point, however, it was a physical, back-and-forth battle that saw two ties and ten lead changes, although the Peacocks held the advantage for much of the second half.  UIU had escaped the first stanza with a slim 1-point lead and relinquished it briefly in the early going of the second, but rallied to put together a six-point edge with 9:39 left on a Brad Arnold trey from the corner that made it 48-42 Upper Iowa.
 
The Wolves then mounted a 10-0 run sparked by a Jared Hannigan lay-up and capped by a Dustin Tetzlaff spinning bank shot  that gave NSU the 52-48 edge, a lead the Wolves would not relinquish the rest of the way.  Freshman Michael Emge added back-to-back buckets for the Wolves in that run, four of his nine points on the night.
 
NSU pushed its advantage briefly to eight points with a contested three-pointer from Hannigan at the top of the key, his only made trey of the night, but UIU answered quickly with a triple of its own from reserve guard Sam Elgin, who had 15 points and seven boards for the Peacocks.
 
The two teams then traded buckets and free throws the remainder of the way with NSU converting on their charity tosses to keep the Peacocks at bay.
 
In addition to his 23 points, Pryor snagged 11 rebounds for his third double-double of the season.  Tetzlaff added 19 points and six boards, four of which came on the offensive glass.  Emge finished with nine points and a career-best six rebounds, while Hannigan turned in six points and six assists offensively.
 
The Wolves committed a season-low eight turnovers in the game, picking up 13 assists and four blocks as a team.
 
Upper Iowa was led by Tucker Wentzien's 16 points and nine rebounds.  Jake Hughes added nine points.
 
The Wolves return to action on Tuesday night, hosting 11^th-ranked Winona State for another NSIC showdown.  Tip-off is slated for 8 p.m. in Wachs Arena.  WSU is coming off an 83-72 win over U-Mary on Monday night.