Men's Basketball

 

Men End Three Game Skid with a Victory Over the Peacocks

December 2, 2006
FAYETTE, Iowa– The Wolves ended a three game losing streak with a victory over the Upper Iowa Peacocks 77-71 Saturday night in Fayette, Iowa. With the win the Wolves improve to 5-3, 1-1 NSIC on the year while the Peacocks fall to 1-6, 1-1 NSIC.

In the first half, Northern State jumped out to a 16 point lead, 28-12 at the 10:39 mark. But Upper Iowa battled back as they went on a 8-0 run to cut the lead to 28-20 with 8:17 to go in the half. The rest of the first half the Wolves and the Peacocks went back and forth until the Wolves went on a 9-3 run to take a 15 point lead into halftime at 46-31.

Early in the second half, Northern pushed their lead up to as many as 17 points. With 12:46 left to go in the game and trailing by 14 points, Upper Iowa went on a 10-0 run to cut the lead to four at 53-57. The Wolves would counter the Peacocks' attack by going on an 8-2 run to push their lead back up to eight with just over eight minutes to go in the game.

The Peacocks would not give up and with 1:20 left in the game, they would cut the lead back down to four at 69-73, but the Wolves' Craig Nelson would seal the victory for the Wolves as he went 4-of-4 on free throw attempts down the stretch.

The Wolves were led by Kevin Ratzsch as he scored 23 points on 8-of-17 shooting and snared 9 rebounds on the night. Levi Hamilton also had a big night for Northern as he went 8-of-12 on the night for 22 points. The only other Northern player in double figures was Luke Wicks as he scored 12 points.

The Peacocks were led by Marcus Uhlenhopp and Nick Larson as they both scored 16 points and went a combined 11-of-14 shooting and 8-of-9 from behind the arc.

The Wolves dominated the boards as they out-rebounded Upper Iowa 35 to 25 on the night and they only turned the ball over 8 times to the Peacocks 12. The Wolves only shot 44.4% (24/54) from the field tp the Peacocks 51.0% (25/49), but the deciding factor in the game was the Wolves shot 70.0% (21/30) from the line to the Peacocks 55.0% (11/20).

The Wolves will be in action next weekend when they play their first home conference game against the Wayne State Wildcats on December 8th at 8:00 pm in Wachs Arena.