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Despite giving up a 19-point lead, which they held late in the first half, the Northern State men's basketball team held on to win an 85-78 thriller over Augustana Saturday night in Sioux Falls. It is Northern's first win over the Vikings since 2008, snapping a 10-game losing streak to Augie.

Skye Warwick led the Wolves with 21 points in the win. Warwick went 7-of-10 from three-point range, three of which came in the final 3:42 of the contest. Trailing 70-68, Warwick gave NSU the lead at 71-70 and then hit three's on back-to-back possessions, breaking a 73-73 tie and giving the Wolves a big six-point lead with 1:12 to go in the ball game. Warwick's seven three-pointers set a new career-high for him.

 Northern (16-10, 11-9 NSIC) held a huge lead in the opening half, leading 46-27 with 2:20 to play. Augustana (14-12, 11-9) began its comeback before the break, ending the half on a 7-0 run and cut the Northern lead down to 46-34 going into the break. The Vikings then opened the second half going on a big 21-2 run and led Northern 48-46 with 16:15 to play. The rest of the contest was a back-and-forth battle before Warwick's shooting and Tydan Storrusten's free-throw shooting clinched the win for NSU. Storrusten went 6-of-6 from the line the final 31 seconds of the game to ice it for the Wolves.

The Wolves shot 54.7 percent for the game (29-for-53) including going 18-of-30 (60 percent) in the first half. Augustana hit 25-of-48 (52.1 percent) from the floor and went 14-of-23 (61 percent) in the second half. NSU held a 28-21 lead on the boards, but were outscored in the paint 28-22 and had two fewer second-chance points. However, the Wolves bench held a 27-24 edge in the win.

AC hit 82.6 percent of its free throws (19-for-23) while the Wolves went 11-of-16 (68.8 percent). The big difference Saturday came from beyond the arc as the Wolves made 16-fo-30 (53.3 percent) from three-point range while Augustana went 9-of-21 (43 percent). The 16 made three-pointers set a new team-high this season for the Wolves.

Both teams played a very clean, efficient game as the Wolves recorded 17 assists and just eight turnovers while the Vikings were even better, recording 18 assists and six turnovers.

Jared Hannigan scored 12 points and hit 4-of-6 from three-point range for Northern while Darin Peterka added 10 points and Seth Bachand had nine points and a team-high five rebounds. Mitch White scored seven points, dished-out five assists and had four boards in the win. Tanner Heiser recorded career-highs with eight points and four assists as well for NSU.

NSU returns home next weekend for the final regular season weekend of the year. U-Mary comes to town Friday for an 8 p.m. tip while Minot State is the opponent Saturday at 7 p.m. Next weekend is also "I Hate Winter" weekend at Northern.