Box Score Box Score

CROOKSTON, MINN. – After being held to just two points a night earlier, Emily Becken came out with a chip on her shoulder hitting the game winning basket while setting a new career mark and Wolves season high of 27 points, in the Wolves (13-10, 8-9 NSIC) 67-66 victory over Minnesota, Crookston (8-12, 5-11 NSIC) in Northern Sun Intercollegiate action on Saturday afternoon.

Northern State took a 35-33 lead into the intermission break, awaiting the fireworks to come in the second half.

As the two teams traded baskets for the first 13 minutes of the second half, Becken and fellow senior Jenna Higgins were quietly making cases for who would have the hot hand.

With 7:41 left in the game, the Golden Eagles started to make a run, starting with a three point basket from Carly Rothsein.

The Golden Eagles would build an eight point lead with 4:15 remaining when Coach Fredrickson called a time out to regroup the Wolves.

Coming out of the time out, Higgins went straight to work hitting a jump shot from the elbow with the assist from Megan Mutchler.

On the Wolves next trip down the floor, Becken found Higgins for the jumper to cut the deficit to just four with 2:12 remaining.

After Laurie Tyson hit 1 of 2 free throws for UMC, Higgins again found the bottom of the net, this time hitting a layup on the dish from Alison Kusler.

With 52 seconds remaining and down three, Becken made the first of two big plays for the Wolves, hitting the lay up to cut the deficit to one.

With 38 seconds remaining in the game, the Wolves had an opportunity to take the lead after securing a rebound off a missed Golden Eagle shot. Higgins missed long on a ten foot shot, which immediately led to a Wolves foul.

With 19 seconds left, Jacy Christenson of UMC missed the front end of a 1 and 1 free throw, with Mutchler securing the rebound.

Off the rebound the Wolves called out the play they wanted, which was Emily Becken driving the left side for the lay up, giving Northern State the 67-66 lead as the scoreboard read just 8.7 seconds.

The final opportunity for the Golden Eagles was a runner from Ashley Martell which was safely snuggled by Mutchler as the final horn sounded.

The final stats had Emily Becken with a career high 27 points and Higgins with 16 points.

Mikayla Barondeau added eight points and eight rebounds while Alison Kusler had six points and a game high 12 rebounds as the Wolves out rebounded the Golden Eagles 44-35.

The Wolves return to action facing in-state rivals Augustana College on Friday February 10th in a 6 p.m. match up in Sioux Falls. In the contest Barondeau will be looking to collect her 1,000th career point as she currently sits at 999 points.