St. Cloud State 66 Wayne State 59
St. Cloud State held off a late Wayne State rally in the final three minutes as the Huskies defeated the Wildcats 66-59 in Northern Sun Conference men's college basketball played Friday evening at Halenbeck Hall in St. Cloud, Minnesota. The host Huskies are now 11-7 overall and 10-4 in the NSIC while the Wildcats suffer their fifth loss in a row, falling to 9-9 on the season and 5-9 in the Northern Sun Conference.
St. Cloud State held the lead for the entire first half, but a Wayne State scoring spurt in the final 90 seconds of the first half made the game close at halftime. With St. Cloud State leading 15-12 with 8:43 to go in the first half, the Huskies went on a 13-2 run over the ensuing 7:04 and took a 28-14 lead, their biggest lead of the half, with 1:39 to play in the half. But Wayne State closed the half strong and highlighted by a pair of Vontrell Seroyer three pointers in the final 30 seconds, scored the final 10 points of the half to trim the Husky advantage to 28-24 at halftime.
WSC scored the first four points of the second half and tied the score at 28-28 with 18:40 remaining on a Ben Tasa jumper. The 'Cats tied the score one more time at 30-30, but St. Cloud State would never let the Wildcats take the lead. With St. Cloud State leading 38-35 with 14:34 to play, the Huskies reeled off nine straight points and took another double digit lead at 47-35 on a Brett Putz three pointer with 11:20 to go. However, the Wildcats made things interesting in the final three minutes of the game.
With St. Cloud State holding a 62-50 lead with 2:46 left, Wayne State's Brad Starken scored seven straight points on two free throws, a three pointer and two more free throws, cutting the Husky lead to 62-57 with 1:26 to play. An Amry Shelby layup following a St. Cloud State miss cut the St. Cloud State lead to three at 62-59 with 51 seconds left. But WSC had to foul St. Cloud State and Putz canned two free throws with 47 seconds left to push the Husky lead to five and following a missed three pointer by Wayne State's Vontrell Seroyer St. Cloud State's Josh Ortmann made two free throws with 31 seconds remaining to seal the 66-59 win for St. Cloud State.
Senior forward Brad Starken paced Wayne State in scoring with 15 points followed by Derrell Williams with 14 points and 10 rebounds for his second double-double of the season. Jason Jensen and Vontrell Seroyer chipped in 10 points apiece. St. Cloud State held Wildcat leading scorer Amry Shelby (17.5 points per game) to just four points on 2 of 8 shooting.
Wayne State shot 42.6 percent from the field, making 23 of 54 shots from the field including 6 of 18 three pointers. The Wildcats were 7 of 10 from the charity stripe.
St. Cloud State's top scorer was Brett Putz with a game-high 23 points while Andrew Bernstetter, Taylor Witt and Ben Bucholz scored 12 points apiece. The Huskies made 21 of 47 shots from the field for 44.7 percent and made 6 of 17 three pointers along with 18 of 24 free throws.
Wayne State had one more rebound than St. Cloud State 32-31. Williams grabbed a game-high 10 boards to lead Wayne State while Bernstetter had nine rebounds for St. Cloud State. WSC had 16 turnovers in the game to 13 for the Huskies.
The Wildcats will conclude their Northern Sun Conference road trip Saturday evening at 6:00 p.m. playing at Concordia-St. Paul.
