Nebraska Wesleyan overcame a 10-point halftime deficit and went on a 13-0 run in the second half to earn a 61-56 victory over Morningside College in GPAC men’s basketball action on Wednesday (Jan. 2) at Snyder Arena in Lincoln.

The win is the third straight for the Prairie Wolves as they improve to 8-5 overall and 3-5 in the GPAC to climb up to seventh in the league standings. Morningside falls to 8-10, 3-5 GPAC.

Morningside hit a running 3-pointer to end the first half and take the 10-point lead into the locker room. NWU immediately cut the lead down to three points, but the Mustangs built the lead back to double digits and still led 45-37 with 11:03 remaining.

From there, NWU held Morningside without a point for the next 5:34 as the Prairie Wolves went on a 13-0 run to take the lead 50-45 on a layup by Jonah Bradley. Trevor Johnson scored six of those points during the run.

The Mustangs pulled within two points twice, including at the 2:07 mark in the second half after a layup by Kyle Nikkel. On the next possession, Jonah Bradley nailed a 3-pointer from the corner to put NWU up by five. Danny Rudeen answered with a layup to make it a three-point game.

Bradley then went 6-6 at the free throw line in the final 20 seconds to seal the big conference win for the Prairie Wolves.

Three players reached double figures for Nebraska Wesleyan, led by Trevor Johnson with 18 points on 8-11 shooting. Johnson also had seven rebounds and three assists. Bradley finished with 14 points and seven rebounds, while Eric Jackson added 11. Trent Scheitel came off the bench to score eight points and lead NWU with eight rebounds as the Prairie Wolves outrebounded the Mustangs by six.

Rudeen, the GPAC’s leading scorer, led all scorers in the game with 24 poitns and had eight rebounds.

NWU will go for their fourth straight victory this Saturday (Jan. 5) with a trip to Mitchell, S.D., to face Dakota Wesleyan Universtiy.