NORTHERN MEN ADVANCE TO NSIC SEMI-FINALS WITH 99-65 WIN OVER CONCORDIA

March 5 , 2003

Sundance Wicks led NSU with 20 points and seven rebounds in the Wolves' 99-65 first round victory over Concordia-St. Paul on Wednesday.

Aberdeen, S.D. - Senior Sundance Wicks scored 20 points and grabbed seven rebounds to guide Northern State to a 99-65 victory over Concordia-St. Paul in the first round of the NSIC tournament on Wednesday night.

The Golden Bears came out with an upset in mind and kept with the top seeded Wolves trailing only 41-38 at the halftime break. But NSU came out red hot in the second making an 8-0 run to begin the period and extended its lead to 20 points at the 12:40 mark in the game.

Wicks, with 20 points on the evening, led NSU in scoring and pulled within two points of the top 25 in NSU history in career scoring.

Freshman Aaron Busack also had a stellar night for the Wolves with 19 points and seven rebounds while going 6-of-10 from the floor.

Jarod Obering added 18 points (7-of-10 from the floor) and Matt Hammer chipped in ten to round out the Wolves in double figures.

Steve Smiley paced Northern once again with seven assists on the night.

Senior Nick Scroeder finished with six points and is now just one point away from 1,000 career points.

NSU shot 55 percent (33-60) from the floor while hitting 11-of-20 (.550) from three-point range. NSU also had a nice night from the charity stripe hitting 22-of-24 (.917).

Concordia hit an outstanding 62.5 percent from three-point range in the first half but cooled off to 42.1 percent by the end of the game.

Thomas Blunt paced the Golden Bears with 20 points on the night.

NSU held a 33-25 advantage on the glass and committed just seven turnovers to CSP's 18.

With the win, Northern State advances to the NSIC semi-final game against No. 4 Minnesota-Duluth on Saturday at 2 p.m. in the Gangelhoff Center in St. Paul, Minn.

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