Feb. 27, 2001

It took awhile to get on track, but Northern State cruised to a 91-67 victory over Bemidji State Tuesday in first-round Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference playoff action. Northern, the conference 2-seed, hosted the 7th seeded Beavers.

The Wolves will now travel to Concordia-St. Paul Friday for the semifinal round of the tournament. There they will face Minnesota-Duluth at 1:30. The conference tournament championship, to be determined Saturday at 5:30, earns an automatic bid in the 2001 North Central Regional.

Sophomore forward Shana Theobald (Brookings) led all scorers with 18 points against BSU. Senior post Jennifer Murphy (Aberdeen) led the team in rebounding with nine boards to go with 13 points, while junior forward Shanna Dahl (St. Cloud, Minn.) tallied 11 points to round out NSU's double-digit scorers. Jodi Haugen led BSU with a double-double, racking up 12 points and 11 rebounds.

Senior forward Memory Johannsen (Tolstoy) racked up seven assists on the night, putting her just another seven away from NSU's all-time career mark. She passed Amanda Mikuska on the assists list to move into second. Mikuska dished out 395 assists from 1996-2000; Johannsen currently sits at 396. Atop the list is NSU legend Renee Ruesink, who recorded 402 assists from 1984-88.

For Murphy, Johannsen and forward Natalie Braun (Warner), the game was their last in Wachs Arena. The three starters, who have helped the Wolves to one conference title and two NCAA II post-season appearances, exited in the waning minutes to a warm ovation.

NSU was able to give conference tournament playoff experience to all of its 18 players in uniform. In all, 14 Wolves scored. The Beavers were able to hange around in the second half and even cut NSU's lead to as little as six points with 17 minutes remaining. For awhile the Wolves' offense sputtered, but the team turned on the jets midway through the second half with an 18-3 run keyed by a tenacious full-court press. The Wolves forced 20 turnovers on the night and came up with 17 steals while committing only five turnovers of their own.