Duluth, Minn. – In their final regular season road game, the Northern State University men's basketball team bounced back to defeat Minnesota Duluth 78-72. With the win the Wolves improve to 15-11 overall and 9-11 in league action.
The two teams battled back and forth throughout the first half, with Minnesota Duluth taking the largest lead of just five points. The Bulldogs held onto the lead, with a 36-34 halftime score. The Wolves shot 45.5 percent from the floor in the half, and held Minnesota Duluth to a 38.9 percent mark. Northern however struggled from the foul line hitting just 12-of-20 shots.
Northern quickly gained the lead in the first half, despite a quick rally by the Bulldogs to tie things up just mid-way through. The Wolves broke things open in the final ten minutes of action taking their largest lead, of 12 points, with under four minutes remaining. The Wolves matched their field goal percentage from the first half, and improved from both 3-point range (41.7) and the foul line (86.4).
DJ Pollard led the team with 21 points, while shooting 4-of-6 from the floor and 12-of-15 from the foul line.
Skye Warwick and
Darin Peterka followed with 15 and 12 points respectively. Peterka led the team on the boards with eight total, and Warwick dished out a team leading five assists.
Starters
Bo Fries and
Carter Evans were the final Wolves in double-digits adding ten points apiece.
Mack Arvidson led the NSU bench with four points, and
Michael Schreiber and
Ian Smith added three each. NSU employed a balanced attack with six Wolves knocking down a 3-point basket and eight Wolves pulling down multiple rebounds.
The Wolves out-rebounded the Bulldogs 43-33 in the win, however Minnesota Duluth tallied 15 points off offensive boards. UMD added 34 points in the paint and 13 points off turnovers, but got into foul trouble as the Wolves tallied 31 points from the foul line.
NSU returns home next weekend for a pair of NSIC North contests. The Wolves will open the weekend Friday versus Minnesota Crookston, and then play their final home game of the regular season Saturday versus Bemidji State. With the win, Northern currently sits tied for second in the NSIC North with U-Mary and Minnesota Duluth and two games ahead of fifth place St. Cloud State.
