Jan. 27, 2001

A night and a long bus trip removed from a slugfest loss at Southwest State, Northern State scrapped but ran out of gas in a 69-71 loss at Wayne State (Neb.) Saturday night.

Northern opened up a double-digit lead in the first half, leading by as many as 11 points midway through. But as in the night before, a subsequent first-half lapse then let the opposition back and Wayne took full advantage on their homecourt with a 23-3 run spanning nearly eight minutes. WSC went into halftime with a 42-35 lead.

In the second half, NSU would make surges but never regained the lead. The Wolves came as close as one point at 57-58 with about 10 minutes remaining and made another major surge at the end of the game. Down by two with five seconds remaining, the Wolves had a chance to tie or win, but the Wildcats put on enough pressure and didn't give freshman guard Carin Rambow (Litchfield) a good enough look to knock down. Rambow had hit a clutch 3-pointer with 33 seconds remaining to pull the Wolves to within two points.

NSU (10-8, 6-4 NSIC) was led by senior forward Natalie Braun (Warner), who poured in 17 points to go with five rebounds and two steals. Also coming up big for NSU was senior post Jennifer Murphy (Aberdeen), who recorded her second double-double of the season with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Sophomore post Tia Michalski (Willow Lake) scored 13 points, while senior forward Memory Johannsen (Tolstoy) rounded out NSU's double-digit scorers with 10 points to go with five boards and four assists.

Wayne State (13-5, 8-3 NSIC) was led by a monster game by Karen Hochstein, who came up with 20 points and 15 rebounds. Guard Sara Miller also came up big, adding 23 points. Miller hit six 3-pointers on the night.