Minnesota Duluth 79 Wayne State 78 2 OT
Minnesota Duluth outlasted Wayne State 79-78 in double overtime Saturday night in Northern Sun Conference men's basketball played in Duluth, Minnesota. The host Bulldogs are now 6-6 overall and 3-2 in the NSIC with the win as Wayne State falls to 4-7 overall and 1-3 in league play.
The Wildcats trailed 42-29 at halftime and still trailed by 10 points, 58-48 with 9:59 to play, before rallying to even the score at 66-66 at the end of regulation. UMD had a chance to win the game in regulation, but Rhett McDonald missed jumper and Brett Spiker got the rebound for WSC to send the game into overtime tied at 66-66.
In the first overtime, WSC had a pair of four point leads, including 72-68 with 28 seconds left in overtime following a layup by Jason Jensen. But UMD's Ron White scored on a jumper with 22 seconds left and following a WSC turnover Jake Hottenstine tied the score at 72-72 with 10 seconds left to send the game to a second extra session.
The second overtime period saw WSC take another four point lead at 76-72, but UMD used a five point play on a jumper by White and then a three pointer by Cashton Craig following a missed free throw by White to put the Bulldogs up 77-76. A Brad Starken layup gave WSC a 78-77 lead with 2:37 left in double overtime, but Dylan Rodriguez hit a jumper on the next possession to put the Bulldogs up 79-78 with 2:08 to play. Each team traded turnovers giving WSC the ball with less than one minute to play. Brett Spiker had a shot blocked by UMD with 42 second to play but the 'Cats made a defensive stop as Spiker rebounded a miss by UMD's Ron White and WSC took a timeout with eight seconds to play. However, Wildcat guard Amry Shelby lost the ball and had to foul UMD's Jordan Schade with four seconds left. Schade missed the front end of the one and one and a desperation shot by Shelby fell short as UMD held on to win 79-78.
Senior forward Brett Spiker led Wayne State with 22 points and 16 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season. He was 10 of 20 from the field and 2 of 4 from the free throw line. Junior forward Brad Starken also had a stellar game for the 'Cats, scoring 21 points on 7 of 14 from the field and 5 of 9 from the three point line. Brian Metz had 13 points and Amry Shelby added 12 to round out the double digit scorers for Wayne State.
The Wildcats were 30 of 64 from the field for 46.9 percent and hit 6 of 13 from the three point line and 12 of 20 (60 percent) at the free throw stripe. WSC outrebounded Minnesota Duluth 43-30 thanks to Spiker's 16 rebounds while Jason Jensen added six. The Wildcats had 16 turnovers to just 12 for UMD.
Ron White led Minnesota Duluth in scoring with 22 points followed by Jordan Schade with 13, Cashton Craig 12 and Steve Duncan 11. The Bulldogs were 31 of 63 from the field (49 percent) and hit 9 of 23 shots from the three point line. UMD was 8 of 13 from the charity stripe.
Wayne State will be in action again Sunday afternoon with a 4:00 p.m. contest at Bemidji State.
