Wayne State 69 St. Cloud State 53

            The Wayne State College men's basketball team used 50 percent shooting while holding St. Cloud State to just 35 percent as the Wildcats shut down St .Cloud State 69-53 in Northern Sun Conference men's basketball played Tuesday evening at Rice Auditorium in Wayne.  WSC improves to 8-4 on the season and 4-4 in league play while St. Cloud State drops to 5-6 and 4-3 in the NSIC.  It was the first win by WSC over St. Cloud State since the 2005-06 season.

            Wayne State got off to a slow start, trailing 14-2 in the first seven minutes of the contest.  The Wildcats responded following a timeout by WSC head coach Paul Combs as WSC scored 14 of the next 16 points and tied the score at 16-16 on a Ryan Rudloff three pointer with 5:28 to go in the half.  St. Cloud State's Brett Putz sank a three pointer to give the Huskies a 19-18 lead with 4:09 remaining in the half, but WSC closed the half strong and took a 27-22 lead entering intermission thanks to five straight points scored by junior reserve guard Elijah Miller.

            The Wildcats opened the second half scoring the first eight points, fueled by a four-point play from senior forward Brad Starken, to take a 35-22 lead with 17:35 to go in the game.  St. Cloud State got as close as seven points at 36-29, but WSC would put the Huskies away and built a pair of 20 point leads at 60-40 with 5:56 to go and 62-42 with 5:04 to play before finishing with a 69-53 win.

            Elijah Miller led a balanced scoring attack for WSC with a season-high 13 points.  Jason Jensen followed with 12 points and Derrell Williams had 11.  WSC shot an even 50 percent from the field making 22 of 44 shots.  The 'Cats were 6 of 13 from the three point line and 19 of 24 at the charity stripe.

            Taylor Witt paced St. Cloud State with a game-high 17 points followed by Andrew Bernstetter with 10.  The Huskies made just 19 of 53 shots from the field for 35.8 percent.  SCSU was 8 of 24 from the three point line and 7 of 8 at the free throw line.

            SCSU had one more rebound than Wayne State, 30-29.  Bernstetter grabbed five boards to lead the Huskies while Jensen hauled in a game-high seven rebounds to lead Wayne State on the glass.  WSC forced St. Cloud State into 23 turnovers while WSC had 20.

            Wayne State will be hit the road next weekend, visiting Minnesota Duluth Saturday and Bemidji State Sunday in Northern Sun Conference play starting at 4:00 p.m. each day.