Wayne State 67 Minnesota State 52
Wayne State College built a 15-point first half lead and sophomore forward Ryan Rolfzen scored a career-high 13 points off the bench as the Wildcats led from start to finish in an impressive 67-52 Northern Sun Conference men's basketball win at Minnesota State Saturday evening at the Taylor Center in Mankato, Minnesota. The Wildcats improve to 6-15 overall and 5-12 in league play while Minnesota State is now 7-14 and 6-12 in the NSIC.
WSC opened the game with an 8-0 lead in the first 2:31 of the contest. After Minnesota State pulled within two at 8-6, the 'Cats scored the next seven points to push the lead to nine at 15-6 following an Ayron Worthington jumper with 13:55 to go in the half.
Later in the half, Minnesota State would get as close as two at 21-19 on a Jimmy Whitehead layup. WSC then responded with a 10-0 run over the next 4:18 and took a 31-19 lead on a layup by Worthington with 3:08 to play before halftime and the Wildcats went on to a 36-21 lead at intermission.
The Wildcats maintained their first half momentum early in the second half and built a 23 point lead at 50-27 with 14:15 to play following back-to-back three pointers by Vontrell Seroyer and Ty Bauschek. Wayne State still held a 20 point lead at 58-38 with 6:59 to play until Minnesota State made the game interesting, getting as close as 11 points at 59-48 with 3:56 to play. But the Wildcats made free throws down the stretch to maintain their double digit lead as Minnesota State made just two baskets in the final four minutes as Wayne State registered the 67-52 win.
Junior forward Derrell Williams paced Wayne State with a game-high 20 points and 11 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season. Williams tied his career-high in scoring while reaching double figures for the 18th time in 21 games this season. Senior guard Vontrell Seroyer added 14 points while sophomore reserve forward Ryan Rolfzen provided a spark off the bench with a career-high 13 points, going 5 of 7 from the field and 3 of 4 from the three point line.
Wayne State made 23 of 49 shots from the field for 46.9 percent, making 8 of 17 three pointers and 13 of 20 free throws.
Zach Romashko scored 12 points to lead Minnesota State followed by Stephen Kirschbaum and Jimmy Whitehead with 10 points apiece. The Mavericks shot 40 percent from the field making 20 of 50 shots. MSU was 2 of 14 behind the three point line and 10 of 11 at the charity stripe.
WSC held a 33-28 rebounding advantage over Minnesota State thanks to a game-high 11 caroms from Williams and six by Jordan Holdsworth while Kirschbaum had six boards for the Mavericks. WSC had just 11 turnovers in the game to 14 by Minnesota State.
Wayne State returns home next weekend for Northern Sun Conference games against the University of Mary Friday at 8:00 p.m. and Northern State Saturday at 6:00 p.m.
