Men's Basketball

Feb. 28th, 2007 - Aberdeen, SD	1st	2nd	Final	Records
#6 MSU Moorhead	28	34	62	13-15, 8-10 NSIC
#3 Northern State	32	36	68	21-7, 13-5 NSIC

Wolves Hold Off Dragons

February 28, 2007
ABERDEEN, S.D.- The #3 Northern State Wolves (21-7, 13-5 NSIC) advanced to the semi-finals of the NSIC Red Baron Men's Basketball Classic with a 68-62 victory over the Dragons of Minnesota State University Moorhead (13-15, 8-10 NSIC) on Wednesday night. With the victory, the Wolves will face the #2seed SW Minnesota State Mustangs at 2:00 pm in Winona, Minn on Saturday, March 3.

The Wolves built an early 10 point lead at 12-2 with 14:01 left in the half. They would continue to put on the pressure as they built their lead to 15 (26-11) with 5:11 to go. The Dragons closed out the half with a 17-6 run to close the gap to four at 28-32 at the half.

The Wolves were led by Kevin Ratzsch as he scored 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting. Ratzsch was also the Wolves leading rebounder with 4. The Dragons were led by Dwayne Hardy, Jr. and Blake Strouth as they both had 7 points.

In the half, the Wolves shot 54.2% (13/24) from the field and 38.5% (5/13) from the arc. The Dragons shot 45.5% (10/22) from the field and only 25.0% (2/8) from long range. The Dragons did out rebound the Wolves 15-to-10 in the half and had 9 bench points to the Wolves' 6. The Wolves were able to score 12 points in the paint to the Dragons' 8 and had 10 points off of turnovers to the Dragons' 5.

The second half was much like the first in that the Wolves would build their lead up to as many as 10 points numerous times, but the Dragons would not give up and kept the deficit under 10 for most of the half. The Dragons had cut the lead to 57-54 with 4:20 to go in the game, but the Wolves were able to push the lead back to seven at 63-56 with 2:37 left in the game. The Wolves hit some clutch free throws down the stretch to secure the six point victory, 68-62.

Kevin Ratzsch led the Wolves once again as he scored 19 points and hauled down 6 rebounds in the game. The only other Wolves' player in double figures was Craig Nelson as he scored 14 points in the contest. Luke Wicks led the way in the assist category as he dished out 7 assists. The Dragons only had two players in double figures, as well, as Blake Strouth led the Dragons with 15 points. Jamal O'Neal had 12 points and Craig Williams led the way on the boards as he snared 8 rebounds.

In the game, the Wolves out shot the Dragons 52.2% (24/46) to 43.1% (22/51) from the field. The Wolves also out shot the Dragons from long range 41.7% (10/24) to 25.0% (4/16). The Dragons had six more free throw attempts than the Wolves, but only shot 77.8% (14/18) to the Wolves 83.3% (10/12). MSU Moorhead committed one more turnover than Northern State (17-16) and only had 5 assists to the Wolves' 19.

Saturday's semifinal game will be the third meeting of the year between the Wolves and the Mustangs of SW Minnesota State. The Mustangs defeated the Wolves in both those meetings.

 

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