Only one player for either team scored in double-figures in a defensive battle in aberdeen, s.d. As concordia university (13-9, 2-7 nsic) fell short 63-47 at #12 northern state (20-2, 8-1 nsic) on friday evening at barnett center.

usually when a defense holds an all-american candidate to nine points for the game and only one field goal attempt in the second half, your chances of winning improve. The golden bears shut nsu's matt hammer down, as he scored nine points in the game on 4-9 shooting from the field and 1-4 from three-point range. Hammer didn't attempt a shot until the 5:40 mark in the second half when he buried a three-pointer.

but that was not enough for the bears, as they couldn't muster an offensive attack against the aggressive wolves defense.

concordia shot an efficient 50.0% (10-20) in the first half, but was pounded on the rebounds as the wolves attempted 16 more field goals in the first half, converting at a 44.4% (16-36) clip to jump out to a 34-23 lead at the break.

the wolves continued their strong defense in the second half as they pushed the lead to 21 points late in the period before concordia closed it to a 16 point final margin thanks to junior guard seborn yancy's five late points off the bench.

the bears were led offensively by sophomore center drew shepp, who scored eight points and tied the team-high with four rebounds while swatting a pair of shots.

junior guard kyle marxhausen added seven points and equaled shepp's four rebounds. He also had a pair of steals and assists. Shepp and marxhausen each played a team-high 27 minutes.

junior point guard joey peel canned a pair of threes in the first half and finished with six points, as did junior forward marlon walker, who hit his first three-point field goal of the season.

the only player that reached double-figures in the ballgame was nsu's adam grant, who scored all eleven of his points in the first half on 5-7 shooting.

the bears look to snap their seven game nsic losing streak tomorrow night when they travel to msu moorhead to slay the dragons at alex nemzek hall.