WOLVES FALL IN HARDFOUGHT NSIC SEMIFINAL

March 2, 2002

NSU's Brad Hansen scores on SSU's Chad Koenen early in Northern's semifinal game Saturday.

Northern State's season ended Saturday with a 77-70 loss to Southwest State in a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference tournament semifinal game at Concordia-St. Paul's Gangelhoff Center.

Northern and Southwest traded leads eight times in a hard-fought first half. Southwest took a 36-34 lead into halftime and was able to hang onto it for the rest of the game, although the Wolves tied the score four times in the second half and never let the Mustangs build their lead to more than seven points.

NSU's final push came in the final four minutes of the game, when the Wolves went on a 9-2 run to turn a seven-point SSU lead into a 66-66 tie with 1:22 remaining.

SSU stopped the bleeding with a familiar sight, as SSU senior Chad Koenen hit two free throws to put his team back on top. Including those shots from the charity stripe, SSU iced the game down the stretch by going 11-of-12 from the line in the final minute-and-a-half of play. Koenen ended 10-12 from the line on the night, while as a team the Mustangs went 29-of-35 from the line to NSU's 8-of-19 effort.

Junior forward Sundance Wicks (Gillette, Wyo.) led NSU with 14 points and eight rebounds.

The game served as the final contest for NSU seniors Brad Hansen (Tea), Andy Foster (Caledonia, Minn.), Drew Gruver (Scott City, Kan.), Houson Reed (Olathe, Colo.) and Roland Williams (Fort Worth, Texas). NSU ended the season 20-8. SSU advanced to the NSIC Tournament Championship game and will play Minnesota-Duluth Sunday at 4 p.m.