Jan. 27, 1999

Northern State out-rebounded Southwest State 42-29 en route to a 74-62 win Wednesday night in the Barnett Center.

The Mustangs had plenty of looks in the first half, but connected on only 9-of-31 attempts from the field (29 percent). But despite shooting 52 percent in their own right, the Wolves led only 28-22 at the half, due in part to 11 NSU turnovers in the first stanza.

SSU kept the NSU buldge to around five points for most of the second half, but couldn't get over the hump, partly due to NSU's 14-of-17 performance from the line in the final seven minutes.

Junior point guard Scott Hanson (Tolna, N.D.) led all scorers with 20 points to go with five rebounds. Junior guard Dan Fischer (Bagley, Minn.) added 16, followed by sophomore center Ben Dahl (Cottonwood, Minn.) with 13 and sophomore guard Jared Miller (Mitchell, S.D.) with 11. Senior forward Kyle Johnson (Coon Rapids, Minn.) led the boards crew with 10 caroms. Marques Pena led SSU with 17 points.

The win was No. 299 in the career of NSU coach Bob Olson. He will go for the big 3-0-0 this weekend in a battle of undefeated conference teams at Winona State. The Warriors and Wolves both go into the contest atop the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference at 5-0.

Such was the case last season when Winona visited Aberdeen and fell 75-55 in the Barnett Center and subsequently fell into the conference loss column and second place for the rest of the season. After improving to 6-0 against the Warriors, the Wolves swept through the rest of the conference season until hitting the wall at -- where else -- Winona State in the regular season finale. WSU won 80-74 to hand NSU its only conference blemish of the season.