Jan. 27, 1999

After holding a slim lead throughout, Northern State came up big defensively down the stretch to lock up a 66-63 win over Southwest State Wednesday night at the Barnett Center.

After hanging around and hanging around the second half, the Mustangs' final run in the last two minutes made the game too close for comfort. Southwest cut a five-point Northern lead with two minutes, 40 seconds remaining to a 63-62 Southwest advantage with 47 seconds remaining. NSU answered on its next possession to reclaim the lead for good on a score by sophomore forward Memory Johannsen (Tolstoy, S.D.). NSU made up for some missed free throws in the last half-minute with a defensive stand on SSU's next trip down the court and steal on SSU's last-gasp possession with seven seconds left.

Johannsen led all scorers with 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting including a perfect 2-for-2 from dowtown. Although junior guard and 24th-ranked national scorer Jammie Coyle (Belle Fourche, S.D.) was held to under double-digits in scoring for the first time this season, she made up for it with a season-high seven steals to go along with her eight points. Junior backcourt mate Amanda Mikuska (Platte) also didn't show up big in the points column (four points), but ripped down 10 rebounds, dished out nine assists and tallied five steals. Johannsen and senior Crystal Bonnichsen (Highmore, S.D.) picked up the scoring slack. Bonnichsen recorded a double-double with 10 points and a team-high 11 rebounds.

The win was No. 475 for NSU coach Curt Fredrickson.With the win, NSU keeps the heat on in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference title race. Minnesota-Duluth currently leads the conference with a 5-1 league mark. Northern is right behind at 4-1. UMD is the only team to hand NSU a conference loss this season. The Wolves visit the No. 3 conference team this weekend in Winona State. The Warriors stand at 3-2 in the NSIC after Wednesday's win at Minnesota-Morris.