Coming off a 20-point setback two days earlier, the Northern State women’s basketball team produced a 20-point victory Saturday afternoon at Wachs Arena.

The Wolves played nearly flawless for the first half and then choked off a late rally to secure a 61-41 win over Minnesota State, Moorhead in a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference contest.

After struggling against Minnesota Crookston on Thursday, the Wolves were in control nearly the entire way against Moorhead. Included in the opening 20 minutes were two shots that managed to find their targets right as the shot clock expired.

“I think after last game, everything that could go right did go right today,” said Northern’s Morgan Fiedler. “That’s kind of the opposite of last game. I think everything that could have gone wrong went wrong. We needed this game.”

While offense was not an issue for Northern, the defense also played a prominent role in the victory.

“When the ball goes in the hoop, the game’s a lot simpler and we shot so well in the first half,” said NSU coach Paula Krueger. “But this game was built on defensive effort. We knew that we had to flip a switch here and instead of defending the 3-point line, we needed to take away the paint first.”

Northern kept the Moorhead offense in check until the Dragons scored 10 unanswered points to cut a 20-point deficit down to 49-39 with 3:51 remaining in the final quarter.

That’s when Izzy Moore stepped up and scored Northern’s next six points, driving to the basket despite being saddled with four fouls.

“I was just thinking I’m going to take whatever they give me, and they were giving me the baseline drive, so that’s what I went with,” Moore said. “I knew I had four fouls, but at the same time I don’t want to play hesitant, because that’s just going to take me out of my game.”

Moore finished with a game-high 22 points. Taylor Tool added 10.

The Wolves showed no lingering effects from that tough loss earlier in the week. Instead, they played with a sense of urgency and led by double-digits for a majority of the contest.

“That was a bad game, bad moment for our team, but to bounce back, that says more than that loss did, I think to me. That just shows how resilient our team is,” Moore said. “We know when we’re playing bad, we can play really bad, but when we’re playing good, we can play really good, and these next four games now, we just want to work off of the moments when we’re playing really good.”

The contest was the final Saturday home game for Fiedler, who tries not to think about last-time moments like that.

“I’m just trying to be where my feet are and enjoy the moment,” Fiedler said, “because I feel like if I don’t, I’m just going to miss out on all the joy this game brings.”

The Wolves play three of their final four games on the road, starting with Bemidji on Thursday and Minnesota-Duluth on Saturday.

NSU, 13-11 overall and 8-10 in the NSIC, is involved in a tight battle for playoff position.

“With four games to go, we need to scratch and claw for every ‘W’ we can get,” Krueger said.

Fiedler said games at this time of the year take on a different feel than those earlier in the season. She said the players are understanding that.

“You just have to be the tougher team no matter what. (Opponents are) going to know what we want to do, and I think last game we weren’t tough enough, but I think that’s kind of clicked in everybody’s head,” Fiedler said. “We have to be tougher, and that’s what’s going to get us these next few games, and we’re fully capable of winning them. We just have to be the tougher team.”

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

https://nsuwolves.com/sports/womens-basketball/stats/2025-26/msu-moorhead/boxscore/14149