Wayne State 62 MSU Moorhead 49
Brad Starken drained five three pointers and scored a game-high 21 points and Wayne State posted its 13th straight win over MSU Moorhead with a 62-49 win over the Dragons in Northern Sun Conference men's basketball played Sunday afternoon in Wayne. The Wildcats have won five of their last six games, improving to 7-7 overall and 4-3 in the NSIC while MSU Moorhead slips to 5-10 overall and 2-6 in the league.
After MSU Moorhead opened the game with the first basket, WSC went on an 11-0 run to take an 11-2 lead with 14:07 to play in the first half. The Wildcats went on to build a double digit lead for most of the first half and held a 37-22 lead at halftime.
In the second half, MSU Moorhead cut into the Wildcat lead, using a 14-1 run to start the second half to close within two points at 38-36 with 11:59 to play. Wayne State regained control of the game by going on a 12-2 run over the next four minutes, culminated by a Brett Spiker dunk with 7:59 to play, to take a 50-38 lead. WSC then went up by as many as 16 points before winning by the score of 62-49.
Starken, a junior forward from Muskego, Wisconsin, led Wayne State with a game-high 21 points, making 7 of 16 shots from the field and 5 of 11 three pointers. Senior forward Brett Spiker contributed 19 points and 16 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the season.
WSC shot 21 of 48 from the field for 43.8 percent. The 'Cats made 6 of 15 from the three point line and 14 of 23 at the charity stripe. Wayne State held a sizeable 42-29 edge in rebounding over the Dragons thanks to Spiker's 16 boards while Starken and Jason Jensen added seven boards each.
For MSU Moorhead, Xavier Reed scored 12 points followed by Jake Driscoll with 11. The Dragons were held to just 34.5 percent shooting on 19 of 55, making just 3 of 22 from the three point line. MSUM was 8 of 14 at the free throw stripe. The top rebounder for MSU Moorhead was Driscoll with six.
Wayne State will be on the road next weekend, visiting Winona State Friday night and Upper Iowa Saturday night in Northern Sun Conference battles starting at 8:00 p.m. each night.
