They are the five-time defending Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Tournament Champions and the Northern State Wolves are gearing up for another strong post-season run.

While the Wolves lost four starters from last year’s title squad, they have won four consecutive games and are playing at peak level heading into Wednesday’s opening round contest against Minnesota State at 6 p.m. at Wachs Arena.

“I like the way our guys are playing,” said Northern coach Saul Phillips. “They’re playing their best basketball of the year during this stretch. That’s a good way to feel this time of the year.”

The Wolves have been in seven games this season decided by five points or less, winning five of those.

Some have featured improbable comebacks where Northern has wiped out double-digit deficits with less than 10 minutes left in regulation.

“We had a couple of games this year where we had significant deficits that we overcame within the game,” Phillips said. “It’s nice because I don’t spend a lot of time calming my team down reassuring them that they can pull it out, because they kind of just believe that they can. Believing you can is half the battle.”

The Wolves have found a variety of ways to win some of those games with multiple players coming up big when it mattered most.

“We’ve won close games in a lot of different ways,” Phillips said. “There’s been games where we had to get to the free-throw line a bunch, there’s been games where we had to hit big threes, and there’s been everything in between. It’s been coming from a lot of different directions, but it’s been a very rewarding and fun year.”

The Wolves now prepare to compete in the NSIC Tourney, an event where they have hoisted the championship trophy for the past five years. While this year’s team features an almost entire different starting lineup (Jordan Belka is the lone returning starter from last year’s champs), Phillips said the post season still feels the same with a sense of urgency to win or be eliminated.

Northern’s first test comes against a Minnesota State squad that defeated the Wolves 75-68 in Mankato, Minn., about a month ago.

Phillips said he has been watching and rewatching film of that game to determine what his team can do better in the rematch.

“There’s no magic secret. We got rushed on offense a little bit. We got some really good looks when we ran our stuff at the rim. We gave up too many offensive rebounds and didn’t guard the ball well enough, and we got stretched out defensively on help side,” Phillips said. “That’s enough to work on right there.”

If the Wolves win on Wednesday, the will take on Upper Iowa at 11 a.m. Sunday at the Pentagon in Sioux Falls. Phillips said the goal is real basic right now.

“The first goal is to get to Sioux Falls,” he said, “and then you get to Sioux Falls and then your next goal would be to stay in Sioux Falls. It’s that simple.”

Unlike past years where the Wolves were favored in nearly every matchup, this year Northern will have to clear one major hurdle after another in order to defend its tourney title.

“There’s one thing that’s guaranteed: you’re either going to be playing the best team in the league or a team that just beat the best team in the league at some point in the tournament,” Phillips said, “so you better have some confidence going in.”

The Wolves enter the post season with a 19-11 overall record.

Phillips said considering many of the current players didn’t even know much about each other last August, a potential 20-win season is a noteworthy accomplishment.

“If you take into account the number of people that we’ve lost, if we get to 20 wins with a group that is so fresh and new to each other … that’s something that they should be applauded for. They’ve done a lot of work to this point,” Phillips said. “Now, that being said, if we are fortunate to get 20, I’m going to say, ‘Well boy, this team would great if it got to 21 and then 22.’ I’ll keep changing that target as much as I can. For right now that target is 20. I think our guys need to be lauded for how they’ve listened, how they’ve worked, and for the amount of effort they’ve put in just to get us to this point this year.”

Phillips is hoping the journey is just beginning.

“I’d like to keep them suited up for a long time,” he said, “because I enjoy coaching them.”