There would be no letdown this time.
After a rare home setback on Friday, the Northern State men's basketball team played with a sense of urgency on Saturday night and Minnesota-Duluth paid the price. The Wolves were proficient on offense, effective on defense and rolled to a 95-75 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference victory at Wachs Arena.
"We just wanted to come back and kind of clear our heads, clear our minds and kind of refocus and remember what our identity was," said Northern senior Collin Pryor. "We were able to regroup."
The Wolves were a model of execution on offense the entire night. Northern shot 52 percent from the field, including a blistering 63 percent from three-point range.
"We had better movement tonight," said Northern coach Paul Sather. "One of the things that we really try to stress in our motion offense is understanding roles, getting guys open. You have to be able to curt hard."
Nobody cut harder or shot straighter than Michael Emge, who nailed seven three-pointers in eight attempts on his way to 21 points. Emge made five of those long-range shots in the opening half.
"I get like that sometimes. I just get in a zone and anything I throw up is going in. It was fun," Emge said.
The sophomore said that being able to make those hard cuts is what enabled him to get open.
"The last couple of games I haven't been coming off cuts as hard," Emge said, "so I tried to get back to the basics and cut off every screen hard, so it paid off tonight."
Even with Emge going off in the first 20 minutes, the Wolves only 47-42 at the half before taking control.
Northern cranked up its defense to help fuel a 12-0 surge and extend a 54-48 lead to a 66-48 margin. The Bulldogs never recovered.
"That's where our focus is. It's about getting stops," Sather said. "We told our guys at halftime, the last thing we said is, 'The team that defends the hardest, that is the best defensive team team in the second half, will win.' And I thought we were the better defensive team in the second half."
Meanwhile, it was Pryor who caught fire in the final 20 minutes. He scored 15 of his game-high 25 points in the last half on 6-of-8 shooting as the Wolves won going away.
While Northern produced a solid shooting percentage and had 23 assists on the night, the one statistic that caught Pryor's attention was his team's turnover total of just seven.
"That's big for us," Pryor said. "That's a big-time accomplishment."
The Wolves improved to 8-3 overall and 4-1 in the NSIC with the victory. After a tough loss to St. Cloud State on Friday, the Wolves were determined not to lose back-to-back home games in the conference.
"You don't talk much about home and road," Sather said, "but these home games here with such great fans, you want to come out and really play well for them. I thought the guys tonight did a good job of that."
Northern will try to get one more home victory before the Christmas break when it hosts Mayville State on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
While the Wolves are off to a quick start this season, Pryor is trying to keep things in perspective.
"This is a very long season," he said. "It's a long journey and we've got a long ways to go, but with each game I think the most important part is learning and improving within the game."
MINNESOTA-DULUTH (3-6, 1-4): Reece Zoelle 6-12 5-5 19, Jake Hottenstine 3-11 5-6 12, Jordan Reetz 3-7 0-0 7, Kristofer Jackson 0-1 0-0 0, Brett Ervin 8-16 6-6 24, Austin Pohlen 0-0 0-0 0, Peter Crawford 1-2 0-0 2, Calahan Skogman 1-3 2-2 4, Ben Bucholz 1-2 0-0 2, Dylan Rodriquez 1-1 0-0 2, Erik Powers 1-1 1-1 3. Totals 25-56 19-20 75.
NORTHERN STATE (8-3, 4-1): Mitch White 3-5 0-0 7, Geoffrey Firmin 2-6 2-3 6, Michael Emge 7-12 0-0 21, Collin Pryor 9-15 7-7 25, Dustin Tetzlaff 4-8 1-4 9, Skye Warwick 1-2 0-0 3, Jared Hannigan 0-1 0-0 0, Mack Arvidson 2-3 2-2 7, Trent Zomer 3-10 1-2 9, Seth Bachand 3-3 2-4 8. Totals 34-65 15-22 95.
Halftime score - Northern State 47-42. 3-point field goals - Duluth 6-17 (Zoelle 2-5, Hottenstine 1-5, Reetz 1-3, Ervin 2-3, Skogman 0-1); Northern 12-19 (White 1-1, Firmin 0-1, Emge 7-8, Warwick 1-2, Hannigan 0-1, Arvidson 1-2, Zomer 2-4). Total fouls - Duluth 17; Northern 16. Fouled out - Duluth, None; Northern, Tetzlaff. Rebounds - Duluth 31 (Ervin 7); Northern 34 (Pryor 8). Assists - Duluth 15 (Hottenstine 6); Northern 23 (Firmin 10). Blocks - Duluth 1 (Skogman 1); Northern 6 (White 2). Steals - Duluth 4 (Hottenstine 2); Northern 9 (Pryor 3). Turnovers - Duluth 15; Northern 7. Officials - Pate Bauschelt, Jeff Coombe, Pat Anderson. A - 2,913.