Paynesville was led by Mike Stalboerger with 12 points and 10 rebounds in the game. David Hemmesch also helped out by scoring 10 points and five blocks.
Paynesville, although having troubles on their offense, led at the end of the first half 22-20.
The Wildcats then made a few switches on defense while Paynesville kept having problems on offense which led to the second half turn around, so the score at the end of the third quarter was 32-29 Wildcats.
Paynesville committed 18 turnovers, which seems to have been a problem all season with the Bulldogs. They never really got into any kind of offensive rhythm. This caused them to lose the lead down the road.
"We played very good defense, but struggled on offense," said Junior center Hemmesch.
The Bulldogs were forced to make another fourth quarter comeback if they wanted to win the game. Down by six with just over two minutes to play Lael Zwiefel hit a crucial three-pointer to pull the Bulldogs within three.
Paynesville was forced to foul as time wore down, and NL-S didn't miss many of their fourth quarter free throws. Then Stalboerger fouled out and the Wildcats went on to victory.
NL-S was led by Dustin Sagedahl with 15 points and Joe Tharadson with 10 points .
NL-S: 8-12-12-18 - 50
Paynesville: 10-12-7-13 - 42