SUNNY SHINES, WOLVES WIN AT WINONA STATE

January 25, 2002

Northern State junior forward Sundance Wicks (Gillette, Wyo.) played a near-perfect game Friday night, sparking the Wolves to a 75-55 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference win at Winona State.

Wicks led all scorers with 22 points on 9-of-10 shooting (including 4-of-4 from 3-point range), grabbed a game-high nine rebounds, tallied a game-high six assists and came up with two steals.

His hot hand from the field rubbed off on his teammates, as NSU shot a blistering 60 percent (30-of-50) from the field as a team while holding Winona to just 28 percent on its home court.

NSU (13-5 overall, 8-2 NSIC) led 36-34 at halftime, but began the second half with a 16-2 run and never looked back. Northern went on to build its lead to as many as 26 points (68-42 with 7:13 remaining) and cruised to the win.

Wicks was one of four Wolves to post double digits in scoring, with the senior center tandem of Brad Hansen (Tea, S.D.) and Andy Foster (Caledonia, Minn.) scoring 15 points apiece and combining for 11 rebounds. Senior guard Drew Gruver (Scott City, Kan.) rounded out NSU's double-digit scorers with 10 points to go with a game-high four steals.

WSU (9-9 overall, 5-5 NSIC) was led by Jamie Carrier's 13 points.

Northern will try to retain at least a share of the NSIC lead Saturday night at Concordia-St. Paul. The other team at the top of the NSIC, Minnesota-Duluth, won at Wayne State (Neb.) Friday and will travel to Southwest State (Marshall, Minn.) Saturday.