Box Score (.pdf)
The Northern State men's basketball team held-off Pittsburg State for a 75-68 win Sunday afternoon at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls. The win improves the Wolves to 2-0 on the year.
Mitch White led the Wolves with a career-high 15 points in the game.
Seth Bachand added 12 points, a career-high 14 rebounds and three blocks in the win.
Darin Peterka and
Skye Warwick also added 12 points each and
DJ Pollard scored 10 including a crucial three-point play with 1:41 left to play that put NSU up by four.
Northern got off to a bit of a slow start Sunday as the Gorillas (0-2) led 12-6 with 13:36 left to go in the first half. The Wolves, much like they did Saturday, went on a big streak though as they went on a 23-6 run and went up 29-16 with just under three minutes to go in the half and took a 32-22 advantage into the locker room.
The Wolves continued to carry a double-digit lead for much of the second half and were up by 12, 49-37 with 12:08 left to play, but Pitt. State battled back and went on an 18-5 run of its own and cut the NSU lead to 55-54 with 7:19 left.
The Gorillas eventually took the lead with just 2:56 left at 63-62 before
Seth Bachand slammed in an offensive putback to put the Wolves back up for good on NSU's next trip down the floor. After Pollard's three-point play, the Wolves made seven free throws down the stretch to secure the win.
The Wolves shot 48.8 percent from the floor and held PSU to just 37 percent shooting, however, the Gorillas made 4-of-9 (44 percent) of three-point range and Northern shot just 29 percent (5-of-17) from beyond the arc. Northern also held a 39-31 advantage on the boards and had 18 points off the bench while the Gorillas had just four. PSU held a 38-28 edge in points in the paint and also had 15 points off 13 Northern turnovers. The Wolves got just two points off of five Pitt turnovers.
Northern returns to action Wednesday for its first home game of the season when it hosts Southwest Minnesota State at 8 p.m. It will be the first of seven consecutive home games for the Wolves, it will also be a non-conference game with the Mustangs.
