DULUTH, Minn. – After a two-week break between games, the Nebraska Wesleyan men's basketball team returned to the floor way up north and came up short 94-89 to the College of Saint Scholastica on Monday (Jan. 2) afternoon.
 
NWU led by as many as 14 points early in the 2^nd half, but the Saints shot 67.9 percent from the field in the second half, including 6-10 from 3-point range as CSS outscored the Prairie Wolves by 15 points in the second half.
 
Nebraska Wesleyan led 51-41 at halftime as they were scoring off their press and from long range hitting 7-13 from 3-point land.
 
The Saints, who had lost three in a row, improve to 6-7 on the year with the second half comeback win.  After the Saints got their first lead in the second half, NWU regained control at 82-81 with 3:38 to play.
 
St. Scholastica then nailed to 3-pointers in the final 1:30 of the game to get ahead 89-84.
 
The final minute had a lot of action as the Prairie Wolves tried frantically to make a comeback.  Down five points with the ball and 32 seconds left, NWU inbounded the ball and stepped out of bounds to get the ball back to the Saints.  CSS made one free throw making the score 90-84.
 
Jack Hiller came down on the other end and made a 3-pointer to cut the lead in half at 90-87 with 20.2 seconds left.  As the Saints got the ball inbounds, a foul was called on the Prairie Wolves as they appeared to have forced a jump ball.  A technical foul was assessed to the NWU bench giving the Saints four free throws.  They extended the lead to 93-87.
 
As NWU got the ball back, they made 1-2 free throws but the got the offensive rebound.  After making the first, the second attempt was missed on purpose.  The Wolves attempted to tip the rebound out beyond the arc but a traveling violation was called to seal the win for the Saints.
 
Cooper Cook led the Prairie Wolves with 22 points and eight rebounds.  Cook was 3-7 from 3-point range and 5-6 at the free throw line.  Deion Wells-Ross also scored 20 points making 9-13 from the floor.  He chipped in seven rebounds, two assists and two steals.
 
Trevor Leiting scored 13 points, Nate Schimonitz had 11 points and Dylan Dirks 10 as the three other NWU players in double figures.  The Prairie Wolves finished the game shooting 52.2 percent from the floor but only 28.6 percent from 3-point land in the second half.
 
The 7-3 Prairie Wolves will be get back into Iowa Conference play on Wednesday night with a trip to Simpson College.  They are back at Snyder Arena on Saturday hosting Luther College.