Friday, January 30, 2009

St. Cloud State 66 Wayne State 50

            Wayne State College had a season-high 24 turnovers Friday evening as St. Cloud State handed the sluggish Wildcats a 66-50 Northern Sun Conference men's basketball loss at Rice Auditorium in Wayne.  The visiting Huskies move to 13-6 overall and 8-4 in the NSIC while Wayne State drops to 8-11 and 4-8 in league play.

            St. Cloud State used a scoring spurt late in the first half to take control of the game after the Huskies and Wildcats battled back and forth with six lead changes and one tie early in the game.  With St. Cloud State leading 27-21 with 4:21 to play in the first half, the Huskies closed the first half on a 7-0 run to take a 34-21 lead at halftime.  The Wildcats never were closer than 13 points the rest of the night as St. Cloud State pulled away for the easy win.

            The lone double figure scorer for Wayne State was junior center Brian Metz with 12 points and 11 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season.  The Wildcats shot just 40 percent from the field, making 18 of 45 shots.  WSC was just 1 of 9 from the three point line and 13 of 20 at the free throw stripe.

            St. Cloud State had three players in double figures led by Andrew Bernstetter with 13 points and seven rebounds.  Taylor Witt added 12 points with Theo Rothstein scoring 10.  The Huskies shot just 39 percent from the field on 23 of 59, including 6 of 18 from the three point line.  SCSU was 14 of 22 at the charity stripe.

            WSC outrebounded St. Cloud State 39-33 thanks to 11 boards by Metz while Bernstetter's seven caroms paced St. Cloud State.  The Wildcats had 24 turnovers in the game to just 12 for SCSU.       

            Wayne State will be at home again Saturday evening when the Wildcats host Concordia, St. Paul in a Northern Sun Conference game starting at 8:00 p.m.