aberdeen, s.d. - in the event that one encounters a bear in a secluded area, common wisdom is to clap your hands loudly and make as much noise as possible. That's exactly what happened this evening at wachs arena in the secluded small south dakota town of aberdeen. The golden bears looked to muscle their way past the wolves in a northern sun contest but a pair of sharp shooters took out the bigger, more physical visitors and 2,954 spectators made as much noise along the way as possible to send their league rivals out of the arena. In the end, northern state buried concordia 81-60 behind 10 three-point field goals. box score

the two sharp shooters for northern state were mitch boeck and derek hoellein who accounted for nine of those 10 three-pointers in just 16 attempts. The rest of the team shot just 1-6 from long range. Boeck scored a game-high 25 while knocking down 4-7 from three-point range while hoellein buried 5-9 from three and scored 18.

those two, along with collin pryor, who shot 4-5 from the floor for nine points, shot 19-31 from the field while the rest of the wolves were held 8-26 shooting.

but concordia didn't have three threats to offset the outstanding play of northern state's three stars of the game.

in fact, three-pointers were few and far between for the guests, missing their first 10 attempts and going into halftime just 1-12.

although a few three's did fall late with senior craig heiman (marshall, wis.) knocking down a pair to cut the deficit to 15 points, 72-57, it was too late as there was just 3:45 to play. Heiman finished with 15 points and five rebounds. He moved into sixth on the nsic career scoring list with 1,029 points in his 66th league game, moving up two spots from eighth.

interestingly enough, when the wolves led 70-40 with 12:00 to play, play-by-play announcer gene reich observed that the wolves would go into stall mode and most likely wouldn't reach 80.

at that point, concordia would've needed to double their score just to reach that 80 mark that the longtime voice of the wolves felt nsu would struggle to get to.

it turned out he wasn't far off, as northern state managed just 11 points over the final 12 minutes.

concordia head coach kelly boe, who had won two of his five meetings against college basketball's winningest all-time coach don meyer, knew his team still had to fight as the wolves would most likely slow the pace of the game and try to let the clock defeat cu.

and when heiman knocked down his second three-pointer, a 15 point gap was actually in reach.

it was a 17-2 run for concordia over the eight minute stretch of basketball that provided a glimmer of hope.

on their next possession, the wolves continued to run down the shot clock until hoellein streaked in for a layup with the shot clock close to expiration to extend the lead back to 17 and with just over three mintues to play, that was something concordia couldn't afford to allow.

things didn't start the way the game transpired, though. Concordia came in with a game plan - use size to attack the basket.

with one of the rising star post players of the league forced to the bench to start the contest, sophomore brent barz (johnston, iowa), and another key reserve post, senior thomas bassett (denison, iowa) out for the contest, the golden bears still maintained a considerable size advantage.

inserted into the starting five was junior post dan vandervieren (eden prairie, minn.), a 6-11, 265 pound force and one of concordia's most efficient players per minute played.

concordia pounded it inside to vandervieren on their first three possessions while his defense helped on the other end, too.

the result was a 5-0 start with vandervieren producing three points, an assist to a streaking mike cunningham (g, sr., minneapolis, minn.) and a defensive rebound.

northern finally scored 2:21 into play and would tie the score at five just inside the 17:00 mark. A vandervieren lay-in on a feed from cunningham put cu back up 7-5 at 16:42.

at 16:34, vandervieren took a seat with barz emerging from the bench into action. Vandervieren sat for the next four and a half minutes and came back into the game with northern state on a 15-0 run.

in fact, concordia went from the 16:42 mark to the 11:10 mark without scoring when heiman put in a pair of free throws.

and finally, back to vandervieren at 10:32 for concordia's first field goal in 6:10 of play.

the result was a stifling run of 19-2 by the wolves, who suddenly led 24-9 despite concordia's strong 5-0 start.

vandervieren had a strong performance of eight points on 3-5 shooting with four assists and three rebounds in his third start of the season, but three fouls and a large deficit limited him to just 14 minutes.

northern led by as many 28 in the first half, 45-17, and went into the break leading 47-22. Boeck had 17 in the first half while marko filipic scored 10 with 6-6 free throw shooting off the bench. He finished with 13.

in the second half, cunningham stepped up, scoring 12 of his team-high 18 points. He also collected six rebounds and was 7-10 inside the arc (0-3 from three and 7-13 from the floor overall). The 18 point effort gives him 931 for his career.

heiman, meanwhile, added 15 points and five rebounds while junior matt hackl (seymour, wis.) added six points as he hit two late three-pointers.

it was a tough loss for concordia, who has never won in aberdeen now in 14 trips to wachs arena, especially coming off their second win all-time in marshall, minn. Last saturday at r/a facility against southwest minnesota state.

both teams entered tonight's game having won three of their last four games. And with the loss, concordia's 5-5 nsic record puts them just a game ahead of northern in the league standings as the wolves improve to 4-6. Concordia also dips a game below .500 at 8-9 overall while nsu matches their overall record.

another set back for concordia came elsewhere as tomorrow's opponent, university of mary, knocked off st. Cloud state 76-60 in bismarck, n.d. The marauders entered the weekend tied with cu at 5-4 in the league and improve to 6-4.

earlier in the year, u-mary defeated concordia 83-74 on a neutral floor in sioux falls, s.d. At the nsic hoopsfest. Tomorrow night's tilt in bismarck at mcdowell activity center is against a marauder squad that has not lost at home this year in seven games.

on the flip side, concordia has yet to lose at mcdowell center in two meetings since u-mary joined the nsic in 2006-07.