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Jared Hannigan scored a career-high 36 points on 12-for-20 shooting but it was not enough as Northern State lost Friday night to Minnesota Duluth 88-80 in Aberdeen. Hannigan and UMD's Reece Zoelle were on a scoring frenzy in Wachs Arena, going shot-for-shot in the contest. Zoelle finished the game with a career-high 42 points for the Bulldogs. The 42 points scored is a new high this season in the NSIC.

Free-throws and three-point shooting were the difference in the game as Northern went 8-for-28 (28.6 percent) from long range while Duluth was 10-of-16 (62.5 percent). UMD, who is second in the league in free-throw percentage, shot 30-for-34 from the stripe (88.2 percent) while NSU finished 18-of-27 (66.7) at the line.

After getting off to a slow start, Northern (14-9, 9-8 NSIC) went on a 14-0 run and built a 16-8 lead with 10:14 to go in the first half. The Wolves led by as many as 11 in the game at 24-13 with 7:49 to go in the half but the Bulldogs (9-12, 7-10 NSIC) closed the half on a 22-10 run and led at the break 35-34.

Both teams traded buckets to begin the second half. The Wolves' final lead of the contest came at the 9:32 mark up 60-59. A Peter Crawford jumper put UMD up for good less than a minute later and the Bulldogs kept Northern down the rest of the game as they hit 13-of-14 from the line the final 5:47 of the game and led by as many as 10 with 20 seconds to go. Northern got to as close as three points with 5:27 to go at 67-64.

Crawford finished the game with 28 points and went 15-of-16 from the free throw line in the game. Seth Bachand finished with 12 points, a team-high seven rebounds and two blocks in the loss while Tydan Storrusten added 10 points. Trent Zomer had four blocks in the game for the Wolves.

Northern lost the rebounding battle 37-32 but outscored the Bulldogs 17-13 on second-chance points. The NSU bench held a 13-5 edge and the Wolves controlled the paint holding a 32-14 lead in points in the paint. Duluth scored nine fast break points in the contest and also had a 16-10 edge in points off turnovers in the game.

The Wolves return to action Saturday night as St. Cloud State comes to Wachs Arena for a 7:00 tip. SCSU won the first meeting two weeks ago with Northern 79-71 up in St. Cloud.