Winona State 58 Wayne State 49

            NSIC leading scorer David Johnson scored a game-high 17 points to help Winona State pull away in the second half for a 58-49 Northern Sun Conference men's basketball win at Wayne State College Friday evening.  The visiting Warriors improve to 17-6 overall and 11-5 in league play while WSC suffered its fourth straight loss, dropping to 9-13 overall and 6-9 in the NSIC.

            The first half was a see-saw battle with four ties and six lead changes.  Winona State held a pair of four point leads while Wayne State's biggest lead was 13-10 at the 9:10 mark following a layup by Jason Jensen.  Winona State's Jon Wallburg hit a layup with 25 seconds to play in the first half, giving the Warriors a 23-22 lead at the intermission.

            Early in the second half, Winona State used a 10-2 scoring spurt over a span of nearly 5:30 to take a double digit lead (39-29) and the Warriors never let WSC get closer than eight points the rest of the night as Winona State maintained a double figure lead for most of the second half and went on to the 58-49 win.

            Brad Starken was the lone double digit scorer for Wayne State with 10 points while Jason Jensen and Amry Shelby added eight points apiece.  The Wildcats shot 16 of 50 from the field for 32 percent, hitting 7 of 17 shots from the three point line and 10 of 14 free throws.

            David Johnson led Winona State in scoring with a game-high 17 points followed by Jon Wallburg with 15.  The Warriors shot 56.5 percent from the field, making 26 of 46 shots.  Winona State was 4 of 13 behind the three point line and 2 of 6 at the charity stripe.

            Wayne State held a slight 28-26 advantage in rebounds over Winona State as Brett Spiker led the Wildcats on the glass with nine boards while Winona's top rebounder was Joel Armstrong with six.

            Wayne State will be at home again Saturday night hosting Upper Iowa in a key Northern Sun Conference contest starting at 6:00 p.m.