In a venue where they have pulled out multiple come-from-behind wins this season, the Northern State Wolves added one more in their final game at Wachs Arena Wednesday night.
Northern rallied from a 13-point second-half deficit and grabbed a 65-62 win over Minnesota State during the opening round of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference men’s basketball tournament.
“This has been the story of our season,” said Northern point guard Sam Masten. “We’ve had so many games like this.”
None, though, with the season on the line.
Trailing by double digits in the second half, Northern began to turn the game around on defense. Reserve Kailleb Walton-Blanden began to harass the Mavericks ball handlers and get into the passing lanes.
“We were down, but we’ve been down before. We know we can win it on defense,” Walton-Blanden said. “We stepped it up a lot. We got 14 turnovers (in the second half) and that’s all we needed.”
The former Rapid City Central standout found himself on the floor with the game on the line because of the havoc he was causing on defense.
“I couldn’t take him off the floor,” said Northern coach Saul Phillips. “That’s not our normal closing lineup, but I’m looking out there going why would I change anything? The game has changed, and he’s got a lot to do with it. His fingerprints were all over it.”
While the Wolves finally were able to slow down Minnesota State, it still took a while for the hosts to get going on offense. Northern still trailed by 10 points midway through the second half.
“We really turned up the defense. We caused lot of turnovers in the second half and that changed the narrative of the game,” Phillips said. “And finally we were able to find some footing offensively after about 75 stops. I just kept telling them, ‘We’re getting the stops we need guys if we can just get out of own way a little bit.’ It’s not the prettiest offensive game, but boy did we make plays when we needed to.”
Masten was once again the catalyst, consistently beating his defender off the dribble and driving to the rim. He got fouled on one occassion and his two free throws tied the score at 55-55 with 3:25 left. He then gave the Wolves their first lead of the second half on a drive with 2:07 remaining.
Masten was able to scurry past Mavericks 7-foot center Kelby Kramer to score on some of those drives.
“It’s one thing to say, let’s get something going to the rim, it’s another when there’s a 7-footer standing down there by the rim,” Phillips said. “I knew we had to kick in some threes at some point, but Sam was pretty fearless going down hill there and used a little extra burst of speed maybe to even beat the big fella going to the rim a couple of times.”
From there, it was Jacksen Moni who sealed the deal by making six straight free throws in the final 36 seconds. The freshman led the Wolves with 23 points, most coming early and late.
“He came out fearless and he kind of got quiet in the middle and then he finished fearless,” Phillips said. “Two pretty big bursts and it was exactly what we needed.”
Masten finished with 18 points and seven rebounds in the contest.
He said he could feel the game turning throughout the final 20 minutes.
“We’ve done it so many times this year that we never consider ourselves out of a game at any point,” Masten said. “They started to the turn the ball over a little bit and then that started to spark some energy and some momentum for us. We just tried to ride that out as long as we could and it worked out.”
And in the end, it turned out to be another dramatic victory for the Wolves, only this time it kept their season alive.
“This one is sweet,” Walton-Blanden said comparing the latest victory to the others. “This one is a little better.”
Northern, 20-11, now moves on to the quarterfinals where it faces Upper Iowa at 11 a.m. Sunday at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls. The Wolves defeated the Peacocks during the regular season.
Phillips said the goal in the post season is simply to survive and advance.
“Every time you go out on the court there’s two possibilities when the game is over: you pack up your stuff and go home or you get to keep playing,” Phillips said, “and I want to keep playing, because I like this time of the year.”
To see a complete box, click on the following link:
Track and Field
North Central boys, Ipswich girls take team titles
Track and Field
Various motivators fuel athletes at Northern State Open
Track and Field
Area athletes excel in multiple events at Donat Classic
Track and Field
Hermansen breaks school shot put record at Corn Palace Relays
Men's Basketball
Wilber looking to build on rich NSU basketball history
