BUSACK, HAMMER ESCORT WOLVES TO SECOND NSIC WIN

January 10, 2004

Aaron Busack lines up a free throw attempt in Saturday night's win over Wayne State. -Photo by Jenny Vaughn

Aberdeen, S.D. - Aaron Busack and Matt Hammer combined for 45 of NSU's 80 points in the Wolves' 80-74 victory over Wayne State (Neb.) on Saturday night in Wachs Arena.

The Wolves trailed by six points on two separate occasions in the first half but were able to fight back and tie the game at 34-all at the halftime break.

NSU then started the second half hot, sprinting to a nine-point advantage at the midway point of the second half and extending its lead to 70-55 with just 4:16 remaining.

Wayne State then used a 12-4 run to pull within seven with 1:50 left on the clock. NSU held off the Wildcat charge, however, knocking down all six of its free throw attempts in the final two minutes to hold on to an 80-74 win.

NSU center Aaron Busack scored a season high 25 points on 9-of-10 shooting from the floor while Matt Hammer threw in a career high 20 points to go with a game high nine rebounds.

Jarod Obering hit double-figures in scoring after a career night on Friday by contributing ten points on the evening.

NSU won the glass 33-30 on the night while both teams shot at a 46 percent clip.

Both teams saw their fair share of the foul line on the night with NSU going 29-35 from the line while WSC was 20-26. The Wolves were last in the NSIC in free throw percentage coming into the game but hit almost 83 percent in the game.

NSU improves to 9-5 on the year and 2-2 in the NSIC and will entertain Minnesota-Duluth on Thursday night at 8 p.m.

Statistics