WOLVES USE BIG FIRST HALF TO CRUISE BY CONCORDIA

Dec. 7, 2001

Shooting Schaunaman, Crashing Mollman: Holly Schaunaman (#10) puts up a free-throw while Amanda Mollman (#40) enters frame left in a blur of fury to crash the boards.

Northern State dominated Concordia-St. Paul 39-20 in the first half before having to stave off a late CSP rally to record a 62-51 win Friday night at NSU's Wachs Arena. The game served as the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference opener for both teams.

The Wolves (5-2, 1-0 NSIC), coming off one of the program's worst performances in recent memory at South Dakota State Dec. 1, came out with aggessively on defense, holding CSP to single digits until the eight minute mark in the first half.

The Golden Bears chipped away at NSU's once 22-point lead in the second half, and came to within eight points at 48-56 with over two minutes remaining. But NSU answered with scores from redshirt freshman Natalie Hopkins (St. Louis Park, Minn.) and senior point guard Holly Schaunaman (Leola) to put the lead back up to 12 and stick a dagger in any comeback hopes.

Hopkins and Schaunaman led the team in scoring with 11 points apiece, while senior forward Shanna Dahl (St. Cloud, Minn.) pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds. Schaunaman also had a game-high four steals to go with three assists and six rebounds. CSP (4-3, 0-1 NSIC) was led by Lisa Harfield's 16 points.

NSU resumes conference play Saturday night at home against Winona State.