Wayne State 63 Upper Iowa 54
Freshman guard Amry Shelby (Marion, Iowa) led five Wildcat players in double figures in Wayne State's 63-54 win over Upper Iowa Saturday night at Rice Auditorium in Wayne, America. Shelby had 13 points on the night going 7 of 8 from the free throw line. The win puts the Wildcats a half game out of a playoff berth in the NSIC Sanford Health Men's basketball Tourament. The win makes the Wildcats 10-13 overall and 7-10 in the NSIC and the loss drops the Peacocks to 10-14 overall and 7-10 in the NSIC.
Wayne State struggled early trailing the Peacocks by as many as nine points (13-4) in the opening 10 minutes of the game. The Wildcats would battle back to take the lead late in the half, but Upper Iowa made a layup in the final 10 seconds of the stanza to tie the game at 28-28 going into the break. Upper Iowa's bench did most of the damage in the half scoring 15 points compared to only three points from the WSC bench.
The Wildcats took control of the ball game in the second half. Wayne State shot 50 percent from the field in the half going 7 of 14. WSC also shot .645 percent from the free throw line making 20 of 31 free throw shots. The Wildcats held a lead of 12 halfway through the half and never trailed by less than six in the stanza as Wayne State pulled away with a 63-54 victory.
Wayne State had five players in double figures on the night. Shelby led the way with 13 points to go along with three rebounds. Elijah Miller added 11 points off the bench for WSC, Miller also added five rebounds. Brett Spiker, Brian Metz and Brad Starken each added 10 points for the Wildcats. Spiker led the Wildcats in rebounding grabbing eight boards.
Wayne State shot .442 percent (19-43) from the field on the night. The Wildcats shot .200 percent (2-10) from the three point line and .639 percent (23-36) from the free throw line. Wayne State out rebounded the Peacocks grabbing 30 boards compared to Upper Iowa's 27.
Upper Iowa was led by Brad Burgess who had 11 points off the bench for Upper Iowa. Chris Sullivan added nine points to go along with a team high six rebounds. Upper Iowa shot .444 percent (20-45) from the field, .294 percent (5-17) from the three point line and .818 percent (9-11) from the charity stripe.
Wayne State will be on the road next weekend, visiting Northern State Friday night in an important NSIC game with playoff implications and then head to the University of Mary Saturday night in Northern Sun Conference game. Both games starting at 8:00 p.m. each night.
