There's no stopping the Warriors

WINONA, MINN. — Northern State made the drive from Aberdeen, S.D., to Winona for the third time this season late last week. The Wolves arrived here with a 27-3 record, and all three losses came against Northern Sun rival Winona. Northern won twice over the weekend to reach Tuesday night's North Central Regional final.

And the team there to face it was Winona State, of course. This time, Northern hung around for the first half, and kept Winona's lead out of double figures for most of the second half, but when it was over, the result was familiar: Winona 68, Northern 60.

Northern State is now 0-10 for the past three seasons vs. a Winona State team that has put together a remarkable run for coach Mike Leaf.

The Warriors are 92-2 since mid-January 2006. They won the D-II title in March of '06 and then let an unbeaten season get away in the closing seconds of the '07 final against Barton. The only other loss in this 94-game stretch came against St. Thomas in December here at McCown Gymnasium.

Even Steve Fritz, the Tommies' veteran coach, had a little trouble explaining how that happened when asked a few weeks later.

This was the last home game for three senior starters -- John Smith, Jonte Flowers, and Quincy Henderson -- and they went out with a roaring, fanatical collection of their fellow students chanting "thank you seniors" in the final seconds of this latest memorable victory. Flowers, the super-quick 6-5 guard, was the main man on Tuesday, rather than Smith, the 6-9 center and last season's Division II Player of the Year.

Flowers finished with 33 points, with nine of those coming late in the game when Northern attempted to foul itself back into contention. Before those gifts, Flowers was phenomenal on both ends of the court, hitting four threes, getting inside to make runners when necessary, and leading a Winona defense that attacked Northern ballhandlers and shooters on every inch of the Wolves half-court.

Flowers is the all-time steals leader in Division II and he added four to that total on Tuesday.

"You can play that kind of defense when you have a shot-blocker like John Smith on the back end," Leaf said. "I think it's correct that our pressure defense is even more intense this season than it was in the past. We have the type of athletes who can get after everyone. We teach our guys to get in great position and then attack when a ballhandler is in trouble."

Northern State arrived as the best three-point shooting team in the nation, at 45.3 percent. And Craig Nelson, a 5-11 guard from Mayville, N.D., was second in the country at 50 percent.

"We told [Travis] Whipple and [Ben] Fischer to get on top of him and not let him shoot the three," Leaf said. "They did a great job."

Nelson made his first three with 57 seconds left -- and it was only his second attempt. He made his second with seven seconds left, but had to put it up from about 28 feet to do so.

Winona now heads to its third consecutive Elite Eight for Division II, starting next Wednesday in Springfield, Mass. The Warriors did not get the easy side of the draw. They are rated No. 3 in the country, with their 35-1 record. The co-No. 1s are Grand Valley State (36-0) and Bentley (33-0).

Winona gets Grand Valley in the quarterfinals, and it would face Bentley in the semis if both teams advance. Tough competition, but if Leaf's outfit can offer the same defense it showed again Tuesday night against a frustrated Northern, the Warriors have a shot against anyone.

Northern State had been humiliated 76-40 by Winona in the Northern Sun tournament final 10 days earlier in this same gymnasium. This time, the Wolves were much feistier, and they were within 32-30 early in the second half.

Then Smith barged inside for a layup and converted a three-point play, Henderson made a jumper, and followed with a steal. He came out on the break, saw Flowers flying down the right side, threw a lob that seemed way too high, but Jonte went up, stayed in the air for a moment, and laid it in.

Suddenly, it was a nine-point lead, the building was up for grabs, and the Northern State lads had to know in their souls that this one was going to turn out like the previous three.

Patrick Reusse can be heard weekdays on AM-1500 KSTP at 6:45 and 7:45 a.m. and 4:40 p.m. • preusse@startribune.com