Jan. 20, 2001

After leading by as many as 27 early in the second half, Northern State saw its lead narrowed to two points in the final minute of the game before escaping with a 67-63 win Saturday night in Aberdeen.

The Wolves (10-6 overall, 6-2 NSIC) took control of the game from the opening tip and cruised to a 43-22 halftime lead. The second half opened in the same fashion, with the Wolves widening that gap to 53-26 with about 14 minutes remaining. From there, however, the iron became unkind to NSU. The Wolves missed their next eight shots and went on a six-minute scoring drought. In the meantime, C-SP (7-9, 4-5 NSIC) kept digging into the lead and before the anyone in the arena knew it, what once looked like a blowout was a ballgame again. The 22-0 run left the Golden Bears within five points at 53-48 with eight minutes remaining.

But NSU's offense awakened from its slumber on the next possession with a 3-pointer by freshman guard Carin Rambow (Litchfield, Minn.) and made enough plays to win down the stretch. Sophomore post Tia Michalski (Willow Lake, S.D.) led NSU in scoring with a career-high 16 points on 8-of-9 shooting. Senior forward Natalie Braun (Warner, S.D.) was next on the scoring list with 14 points to go with six rebounds and five assists. Fellow senior forward Memory Johannsen (Tolstoy, S.D.) rounded out NSU's double-digit scorers with 12 points to go with six boards. Junior reserve forward Shanna Dahl (St. Cloud, Minn.) led the team on the boards for the second straight night with nine rebounds to go with six points. C-SP was led by a superhuman effort on the part of Lisa Harfield, who spearheaded her team's comeback in the second half with 19 points. She finished the night with 27 points and 11 rebounds.

With conference leader Minnesota-Duluth dropping two games over the weekend, NSU's loss against Winona State Friday isn't as devastating as it once seemed. The door to becoming the regular season conference champ and top seed in the NSIC tournament is still wide open heading into the second half of league play. The Wolves will take the same trip that did in UMD next weekend, when the team travels to Southwest State and Wayne State.