Box Score

BISMARCK, N.D. – Needing a win to secure a spot in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference tournament, the Northern State Wolves found themselves in a fight for their playoff lives on Saturday night, ultimately dropping a 70-67 decision to the University of Mary Marauders, who picked up a season sweep of the Wolves with the win.
 
The loss, combined with two Wayne State wins over Minnesota, Crookston and MSU Moorhead, cuts the Wolves' post-season plans short.  Both teams tied in terms of conference win-loss records, but the Wildcats took the tiebreaker by virtue of their strength of schedule and claimed the eighth seed in the NSIC tournament.
 
NSU got double-digit efforts from three starters, but could not find an answer for U-Mary's Damon Smith, who scored 18 points and had six rebounds despite being limited to just 18 minutes due to foul trouble.  Geoffrey Firmin and Dustin Tetzlaff scored 15 points apiece for the Wolves.  Tetzlaff also snagged 11 rebounds.
 
The Wolves got off to a slow start on Saturday, allowing the Marauders to take control early.  NSU, however, closed the half on a 9-0 run to tie things up at 27-all thanks to a pair of buckets from Tetzlaff and three-pointers from Michael Emge and Firmin.
 
The Wolves took their first lead of the night at the 14:02 mark of the second half on an Alex Thomas lay-up that made it 38-36, but the Marauders answered right back at the other end.  A conventional 3-point play from Mitch White put the Wolves back up by three with 12 minutes left to go, but again the Marauders found a way to answer the call.
 
That scenario played out twice more in the second half with the Wolves taking brief, one-point leads at the 4:00 and 3:34 points of the half and the Marauders answering back no more than two possessions later.  A 3-point play from Smith with 2:17 left to play put the Marauders up for good.
 
Firmin cut the lead to two with 46 seconds left with a driving, scooping lay-up, but fouled out of the contest while pressuring the Marauder front court.  After two free throws made it a four-point Marauder advantage, the Wolves misfired on three attempts on their next possession before a foul on the rebound put the Marauders back on the line.
 
Smith converted on one of two free throws, but the Wolves again could not convert on the offensive end of the floor.  Tetzlaff was fouled on his offensive rebound and put-back attempt, converting on both free throws to make it a three-point game with 0.6 seconds left to play, but it was too little, too late for the Wolves.
 
In addition to Tetzlaff's and Firmin's 15-point efforts, Pryor chipped in with 10 points.  Emge had eight off the bench for the Wolves, who got at least two points from all nine players to see the court.  NSU also committed a season-low four turnovers on the night, but could not overcome a 41.0 percent shooting effort on the night.
 
For the Marauders, point guard Mike Johnson joined Smith in double figures with 12 points.  Alex Door added 16 and Josh Turner, 12, both in reserve roles.