Men's Basketball

Feb. 2nd , 2007 -Marshall, Minn.	1st	2nd	Final	Records
Northern State	19	49	68	14-7, 7-5 NSIC
Southwest Minnesota State	36	39	75	14-7, 10-2 NSIC

Slow Start Dooms Wolves

February 2 , 2007
MARSHALL, Minn. - Northern State (14-7, 7-5 NSIC) overcame a poor shooting first half and a 17-point halftime deficit and managed to make their battle with Southwest Minnesota State (14-7, 10-2 NSIC) an interesting one that went down to the wire. The Wolves scored 18 points in the final four minutes of the game and threatened to make a thunderous comeback, but ran out of time and fell 75-68.

Northern State could not catch a break in the first half, rimming out the majority of their shots while the Mustangs seemed to have a player in the right spot every time they needed it. The Wolves hit just seven field goals (7-21, 33.3%) in the first period and scored a season low 19 points. Southwest Minnesota State shot 43.8% from the field and turned NSU's seven turnovers into 11 points. Kevin Ratzsch had nine of Northern's 19 first half points. The Mustangs did a good job of spreading the ball around and had five players score between five and eight points.

The Wolves picked up their game in the second half, dropping in both layups and three-point shots while also forcing Mustang turnovers. SMSU kept Northern at bay by dropping in more and more long range shots. Travis Krenske was unstoppable, hitting his fourth of four shots from beyond the arc at the 10:00 mark to put the Mustangs up 57-40.

Northern used the next six minutes to go on a 10-4 run, getting two field goals from Ratzsch and two three-pointers from Craig Nelson, bringing the score to 61-50. The teams traded buckets before back-to-back long range shots from Nelson and Luke Wicks got the Wolves within eight points, 68-60, with one minute to play. It became a five point game, 71-66, with 20 seconds remaining, but the Wolves would not get any closer. The Mustangs took the 75-68 win.

Northern outscored Southwest 49-39 in the second half after shooting 59.3 percent from the field, but it was not enough to make up for their sluggish first half performance. The Wolves were led by Ratzsch with 25 points from 8-of-9 shooting from the field. Wicks and Nelson each hit four three-pointers on the night, finishing wtih 19 and 12 points each, respectively. Wicks also led the Wolves on the boards with seven rebounds on the night. Northern gave up a 23-36 rebounding margin to the Mustangs.

Southwest was led in scoring by Jeremy VanKlompenburg and Ryan Krome with 17 and 16 points each, respectively. VanKlompenburg led all players wtih nine rebounds. The team shot 44.8% from the field and hit nine three-pointers in the game.

The Wolves will take on the Wayne State Wildcats tomorrow evening in Wayne, NE. The game will tip-off at 8:00 pm.