Northern State held off Wayne State 66-60 in a Northern Sun Conference women's basketball contest played Saturday evening at Wachs Arena in Aberdeen, South Dakota.  The host Wolves move to 9-6 and 4-5 in the league while WSC drops to 9-5 and 5-5 in NSIC games.
            The host Wolves took a double digit lead in the opening quarter at 17-6 with 2:12 to play in the quarter.  Still trailing 19-10 with 55 seconds left in the quarter the 'Cats closed with an Annie Guentzel basket and Lauren Zacharias trey to only trail 19-15 after 10 minutes of play.
            WSC was still down nine at 27-18 with six minutes to play in the second quarter but battled back and took their first lead of the game at 30-29 on a turnaround jumper from Guentzel with 1:14 left in the half.  The 'Cats closed the half with a basket by Zacharias to lead 32-31 at the break.
            The Wildcats held a pair of four point leads early in the third quarter and was in front 37-33 following a basket by Guentzel.     
            NSU came back and regained the lead with Kassidy Pingel draining a 3-pointer at the 6:26 mark for the final Wildcat lead of the game at 40-39.
            The Wolves never led by more than four as WSC ended the quarter on a Logan Hughes basket to trail 48-46 entering the final stanza.
            Northern State pushed the lead to six early in the fourth quarter at 54-48, but WSC rallied and used 3-pointers by Pingel and Zacharias to tie the score at 54-54 with 6:20 to play.
            That's as close as the 'Cats would get but WSC had a chance to tie the game in the final 30 seconds.
            With Wayne State trailing 63-60, the 'Cats got a steal with 35 seconds left and missed two layups and a 3-pointer that would have evened the score.
            Instead, Northern State got the rebound and WSC had to foul Laurie Rogers with 14 seconds to play and she made both free throws to give the Wolves a 65-60 advantage.  NSU then made one more free throw to make the final score 66-60.
            Guentzel scored 15 points to lead Wayne State in scoring.  Pingel added 14 while Zacharias recorded her second double-double of the season with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
            Wayne State shot just 32.4 percent for the game making 22 of 68 shots including 6 for 25 from the 3-point line.  The 'Cats were 10 of 10 at the charity stripe.
            Kailee Oliverson had 20 points and 12 rebounds to pace Northern State while Laurie Rogers also recorded a double-double with 18 points and 14 boards. 
            Northern State shot 40.7 percent on 24 of 59 shooting and was 4 for 12 from the 3-point line while making 14 of 20 free throws. 
            The Wolves held a sizeable 49-34 edge in rebounding over WSC with Zacharias the top WSC rebounder pulling down 10 boards.  She also had a team-high four assists.
            The Wildcats will be at home next weekend hosting Minot State Friday at 5:30 p.m. and University of Mary Saturday at 3:30 p.m. in NSIC cross division games at Rice Auditorium.