Men's Basketball

Mar. 3rd, 2007 - Winona, Minn.	1st	2nd	Final	Records
#3 Northern State	26	37	63	21-8
#2 SW Minnesota State	31	51	82	20-9

Wolves Season Ends in Winona

March 3rd, 2007
WINNONA, Minn.- The Northern State Wolves (21-8) season ends with a 82-63 loss to the SW Minnesota State Mustangs (20-9) in the semi-finals of the NSIC Red Barron Men’s Basketball Classic. With the loss to the Mustangs the Wolves fall to 1-3 all time in NSIC tournament history. The is the first time in three season’s that the Wolves have not been in the final’s of the NSIC Classic.

In the first half the Wolves and the Mustangs came out cold, shooting a combined 8-of-37 going into the media time out. After going up 5-2 the Wolves were unable to find the basket as the Mustangs used a 12-3 run to go up 14-8 with just over nine minutes to play in the half. The rest of the half the was pretty even as they Wolves would out score the Mustangs 18-17 to trail 26-31 going into the half.

In the half the Wolves were led by Craig Nelson as he scored 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field. Kevin Ratzsch the NSIC's leading scorer would only score 2 points in the first half going 1-of-9. The Mustangs were led by Ryan Krome as he scored 7 points on 3-of-8 shooting.

SW Minnesota State out rebounded Northern State 23-to-22 in the half ad had 12 points in the paint to the Wolves 10. The Wolves did have 7 second half points to the Mustangs 4 and only committed one turnover to the Mustangs four.

The Wolves only shot 29.4% (10/34) for the half and 33.3% (3/9) from long range. The Mustangs shot 35.5% (11/31) from the field and 25.0% (3/12) from behind the arc. Both the Wolves and the Mustangs shot six free throws in the half, but the Wolves only made 50.0% (3/6) to the Mustangs 100% (6/6).

The Mustangs would go on a 12-to-6 run to open up the second half to build their lead to 11 at 43-32 with 14:41 left to go in the game. The Mustangs would continue to put on the pressure building their lead to fifteen at 49-34 with 12:25 left in the game. The Wolves would continue to play hard but they could not get any closer then eleven points as the Mustangs would advance to the championship of the NSIC Red Baron Men's Basketball Classic with a 82-63 loss.

The Wolves were led by Craig Nelson who had 24 points on 9-of-18 shooting from the field and 6-of-14 from long range. The only other player in double figures for the Wolves was Kevin Ratzsch as he scored 16 points on 8-of-20 shooting. On the boards the Wolves were led by Luke Wicks as he hauled down 8 rebounds.

The Mustags had six players in double figures led by Jeremy VanKlompenburgs as he scored 18 points on 6-of-13 shooting. Matt Fletcher had 16 points, Andrew Peschong and Ryan Krome had 11 for the Mustangs. Chad Orum had a double double with 10 points and 10 rebounds and Travis Krenske had 10 points to round out the players in double figures for SW Minnesota State.

The committed 10 turnovers to the Mustangs 9 and they only had 35 rebounds to the Mustangs 45. The Wolves only shot 37.9% (25/66) from the field to the Mustangs 43.3% (26/60). The Stangs shot 19 more free throws then the Wolves shooting 78.6% (22/28) to the Wolves 55.6% (5/9).

This marked the last game for Wolves senior John Curtis Carr as he played two years fo the Wolves. The Wolves will return the rest of their line-up for next years season.

NSU HOME

NSU ATHLETICS