Men's Basketball

Feb. 17th, 2007 - Crookston, MN	1st	2nd	Final	Records
Northern State	29	32	61	19-7, 12-5 NSIC
Minnesota, Crookston	32	25	57	2-23, 1-15 NSIC

Northern Downs UM, Crookston 90-72

CROOKSTON, Minn.- With a 90-72 win over Minnesota, Crookston (2-23, 1-15 NSIC) Saturday evening, the Northern State men’s basketball team improved to 19-7 overall and 12-5 in the NSIC. The Wolves shot 51.5 percent (34-66) from the field and scored 25 points off of UMC turnovers. They will play their final regular season game next Saturday at the University of Mary.

Although the Golden Eagles have just two wins on the season, the Wolves did not gain their win easily on Saturday. Crookston led by single digits the majority of the first half. It wasn’t until the 3:55 mark that the Wolves took over the lead for the final time. A 10-0 run, with four points coming from the charity stripe, in the late minutes put the Wolves on top. They went into the locker room with a 42-37 lead.

Northern State turned on the burners in the second half, going up by double figures within four minutes of play. They gradually wore out the Eagles and pushed the margin higher, with their greatest lead being 21 points in the last minute of the game. Northern ultimately posted an 18-point win, 90-72, the team’s highest scoring game of the season.

The Wolves were led by Craig Nelson with 22 points after shooting 8-of-14 from the field and 6-of-9 from beyond the arc. Levi Hamilton had another strong game, posting 19 points and nine rebounds, while Robert Thomas had 11 points and eight rebounds. Kevin Ratzsch was the fourth NSU player in double figures with 13 points and six rebounds. The Wolves led in rebounds 38-33.

Minnesota, Crookston was led by Joey Kollar with 18 points, Bryce Cummings with 13, and Eli McVey and Matt Pelzer with 10 points each. The team shot 41.9 percent from the field (26-62), hit 8-of-12 three-pointers, and received 38 points from their bench.