WOLVES FEND OFF JIMMIES IN 73-59 BATTLE

November 21, 2003

Aberdeen, S.D. - Northern State held off a pesky Jamestown College team in a Friday night non-conference showdown in Wachs Arena winning the contest 73-59.

The Wolves jumped out to a hot start leading 7-1 early in the contest. That lead would evaporate as JC took its only lead of the game with 13:53 left in the first period, 9-8.

From that point, the Wolves rolled on a 12-1 run to take a 20-10 lead at the midway point of the half and would jump out to a lead as large as 11 before Jamestown came within six at the halftime buzzer, 36-30.

The Wolves opened up the second scoring 12 of the first 14 points in the half and taking a 48-32 lead with 15:19 to play. The Jimmies, however, weren't ready to give in as they a 15-3 run of their own in the next six minutes to pull back to just four points down.

That would be as close as the No. 1 team in NAIA II would get to Northern State, however as NSU pulled away slowly to close the game with a 73-59 victory.

Northern State, once again, showed tremendous balance in its scoring with four players in double-figures for the second straight game led by sophomore Matt Hammer with 17. Adam Grant chipped in 15 while Jarod Obering and Aaron Busack added 14 and 11 points, respectively.

The Jimmies owned the glass for most of the night grabbing 47 boards to Northern State's 38. The Wolves were led by Hammer's six rebounds as Grant, Busack and Steve Smiley threw in five each.

Smiley paced the home team with six assists on the night and Hammer added a game high five steals.

The Wolves shot 42.1 percent (24-57) from the floor and hit 29.6 percent (8-27) from three-point range.

Northern State improves to 2-0 on the young season and hosts former NSIC rival Minnesota, Morris on Saturday night in Wachs Arena. Tipoff is at 7 p.m.

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