Northern State finished the first half on a tear, and ended up finishing off Peru State in the process Friday night during the Dacotah Bank Classic at Wachs Arena.

Trailing 28-26 with just over five minutes left in the half, the Wolves went on a 21-2 run to break the game open en route to a 94-65 non-conference men’s college basketball victory. No. 21 rated Northern scored on 10 of its final 11 possessions of the half and the Bobcats never recovered.

“Games aren’t won or lost in a five-possession burst,” said Northern coach Saul Phillips, “but they can be won in an 11-possession burst if you take care of business, and we did.”

It started innocently enough on a Jacksen Moni drive to the basket with 5:12 left in the opening half to tie the score at 28-28. By the time the blitz was over, the Wolves owned a commanding 47-30 lead heading into the break.

Josh Dilling scored five straight points to fuel the surge, Andrew Bergan had a basket, Moni accounted for eight consecutive points, and Isaiah Hagen finished off the streak with the final four points.

“It was our defensive intensity,” Dilling said. “We had ‘Zay’ Hagen off the bench, who was getting up in their grill, getting steals, so it kind of brought some fire for us. We kind of had to get some stops and then turn it into buckets on the other end.”

Once the Wolves owned the big lead, they weren’t about to let the visitors from Nebraska back into the game. Northern extended the margin to 30 points in the first 10 minutes of the second half on the way to the victory.

“We came into halftime and said, hey we need more,” Dilling said. “We need more juice. It’s bring your own juice day, so we came out and we said, here we go boys, we’re going to put some more points up and try to get some separation, and that’s what happened.”

Dilling led the Wolves with 19 points in addition four assists.

“He’s at his best when he’s not sped up and he’s playing at his pace,” Phillips said, “and tonight, I thought he did an excellent job of dictating what went on the court by the tempo he played with and by the decisions he made out of that tempo.”

Peru State never gave up and eventually closed the gap down to 21 points, but the Bulldogs never got close enough to make a serious run.

Moni, Hagen and Augustin Reede each finished with 16 points to pace a balanced attack for the Wolves.

“What was neat about it, we had a lot of different people contributing tonight,” Phillips said. “Even when we got into our deep bench I thought we saw some really good things.”

The win was the second straight for Northern, which started the season 0-4. The Wolves opened their conference season this past Tuesday with a win over Mary.

“We needed to see some W’s across the board with our season the way it started. Getting two wins now going into more conference play is big,” Dilling said. “It’s big for us and it’s definitely a moral booster, especially the way the season started. We’re feeling good, we’re getting competitive in practice and we’re coming out in games, just trying to get some wins.”

Phillips said that while the team is far from reaching its peak, the squad is making visible strides.

“We’re growing. We’re figuring out exactly who and what we are,” Phillips said. “I thought the last two times out we’ve had pretty good performances and we want to continue to build on it, because pretty soon they’re all going to be a lot more important with conference play starting up.”

The Wolves have one more non-conference game this evening against Trinity Bible at Wachs Arena before heading into league play full time. Phillips said there is one primary goal this weekend.

“I told our guys what we’re looking for this weekend is progress, and whatever that looks like on the scoreboard, I’m really not that concerned about as long as we’re on the right end of it,” Phillips said. “You’re just looking to get better.”

To see a complete box score of the contest, click on the following link:

https://nsuwolves.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2023-24/peru-state-college/boxscore/13309