Friday, January 9, 2009

Minnesota, Crookston 63 Wayne State 58

            Wayne State College shot just 35.6 percent (21 of 59) from the field Friday evening in suffering a 63-58 Northern Sun Conference men's basketball loss at Minnesota, Crookston.  With the loss, the Wildcats fall to 6-7 overall and 2-4 in the NSIC while Minnesota, Crookston is now 3-11 overall and 1-6 in league play.  UMC snapped a seven-game losing streak to the Wildcats, topping WSC for the first time since the 2004-05 season.

            The Wildcats built a pair of eight point leads in the first half (22-14 and 24-16) before settling for a 32-30 lead at the intermission.  Neither team held a lead of more than four points until the final 3:00 of the game.  With the score tied at 52-52 following a basket by Wayne State's Jonathon Thomas with 2:58 to play, Minnesota, Crookston scored six straight points to take a 58-52 lead with 1:24 to play.  WSC used a Brian Metz layup, a free throw by Elijah Miller and an offensive putback by Jonathon Thomas following a missed free throw by Miller to pull within one point at 58-57 with 45 seconds to play.  However, that's as close as WSC would get as UMC made free throws down the stretch and went on to the 63-58 win.

            WSC made just 21 of 59 shots from the field, including 1 of 13 from the three point line, for its' second-worst shooting night of the season.  The 'Cats also struggled at the foul line, making just 15 of 24 (62.5%).  Jonathon Thomas had a double-double for Wayne State with 15 points and 13 rebounds, his second straight double-double and third of the season.  Junior center Brian Metz added 15 points and nine boards while Zane Abner also reached double figures with a season-high 11 points off the bench.

            For Minnesota, Crookston, Akeem Cubie was one of five players in double figures with 18 points followed by Bryce Felts with 14.  Matt Pelzer, Bryce Cummings and Adam Hendricks rounded out the scoring with 10 points apiece.  The Golden Eagles finished the game shooting 24 of 51 from the field for 47.1 percent.  UMC was 3 of 11 from the three point line and 12 of 17 at the charity stripe.

            Wayne State won the rebounding battle 41-33 thanks to 13 caroms by Thomas and nine more by Metz.  Both teams had 13 turnovers in the game.

            Wayne State will play at MSU Moorhead Saturday evening in a Northern Sun Conference contest starting at 8:00 p.m.