Wayne State College battled with #13 St. Cloud State until the Huskies took the lead with 1:36 to play as the Huskies escaped with a 54-51 Northern Sun Conference men's basketball win over the Wildcats Friday evening at Rice Auditorium in Wayne.  SCSU moves to 16-2 overall and 12-2 in the NSIC while the hard luck Wildcats drop to 4-14 overall and 3-11 in league play.
            After the two teams exchanged two ties and three lead changes early on, the Wildcats put together a strong scoring run late in the first half to build a 13 point lead until the Huskies trimmed the deficit to four at halftime 31-27.  With WSC holding an 18-14 lead at the 10:06 mark of the first half, the Wildcats used a 13-4 run over the next 5:49 and took their biggest lead of the game at 31-18 on a layup by Ayron Worthington with 4:17 to go before halftime.  But St. Cloud State responded and closed the gap to four (31-27) at halftime on a Brett Putz three pointer just before intermission.
            The Wildcats held the lead for the entire second half until a late run by the Huskies in the final two minutes propelled them to victory.  WSC held a pair of six point leads in the second half, 35-29 with 18:10 to play and 45-39 with 11:56 left following a layup by Clayfell Harris.  The Huskies then reeled off six straight points to force the game's fourth tie at 45-45.  The 'Cats then built leads of three at 49-46 and 51-48 with 4:35 to play following a pair of Derrell Williams free throws.  A jumper by Brett Putz pulled the Huskies within one at 51-50 with 4:19 and St. Cloud State then took its first lead since early in the game at 52-51 with 1:36 to go on two Tim Bergstraser free throws.  
            The next WSC possession resulted in a turnover, but SCSU could not capitalize as Putz missed a jumper from the left side with 41 seconds left giving WSC the ball and a chance to regain the lead.  Following a Wildcat timeout, WSC attempted to setup the game winning shot but as Amry Shelby drove the baseline he was called out of bounds giving the ball back to the Huskies with 9.6 to play.  SCSU then ran some time off the clock and was fouled with 2.8 seconds left when Shaun Jensen canned two free throws for a 54-51 Husky lead.  
            Wayne State then inbounded the ball to Amry Shelby, who dribbled across the half court stripe and launched a 30-footer that was off the left side of the rim as St. Cloud State escaped with the 54-51 win.
            Shelby led all scorers in the game with 13 points for Wayne State followed by junior forward Derrell Williams with 10 points and a career-high 13 rebounds for his third double-double of the season.  Senior guard Vontrell Seroyer also reached double figures with 10 points to go with five assists.
            WSC was 21 of 48 from the field for 43.8 percent, making 4 of 10 three pointers, to go with 5 of 11 from the foul line.  
            St. Cloud State had three players in double figures as Theo Rothstein, Tim Bergstraser and Brett Putz each accounted for 11 points apiece.  The Huskies shot 34.8 percent from the field on 16 of 46 and was 6 of 20 from the three point line and 16 of 26 at the charity stripe.
            The Wildcats held a 36-32 advantage in rebounding over St. Cloud State with Williams hauling in a game-high 13 rebounds for WSC while Connor Niehaus grabbed seven rebounds for the Huskies.  WSC had 14 turnovers in the game to just nine on St. Cloud State.  
            Wayne State will host Concordia-St. Paul Saturday at 6:00 p.m. in a Northern Sun Conference contest at Rice Auditorium in Wayne.