Minnesota Duluth 76 Wayne State 53
Minnesota Duluth used 65 percent shooting (17 of 26) in the second half to outscore Wayne State 50-30 as the Bulldogs pulled away for a 76-53 Northern Sun Conference men's basketball win over the Wildcats Saturday evening at Romano Gymnasium in Duluth, Minnesota. Both teams are now 8-12 overall while UMD sports a 6-10 record in the NSIC while Wayne State's fifth straight loss drops the Wildcats to 5-11 in league play.
The host Bulldogs took a 20-9 lead at the midway point of the first half. Wayne State came back and went on a 12-0 run over the next 6:42 and took a 21-20 lead on
Ryan Rolfzen's 3-pointer with 3:10 to play before halftime. Minnesota Duluth finished the half scoring six of the final eight points to take a 26-23 lead at intermission.
Wayne State opened the second half with a
Jared Bartling layup to pull within one at 26-25, but that's as close as the Wildcats would get as UMD went on an 11-2 run to take a 37-27 lead and the Bulldogs used tremendous shooting in the second half to pull away for the 76-53 win over the Wildcats.
Senior center
Jared Bartling scored 13 points to lead Wayne State followed by
Ryan Rolfzen with 10. The Wildcats made 19 of 52 shots from the field for 36.5 percent, going 5 for 21 from 3-point range and 10 of 15 at the foul line.
Jordan Reetz paced Minnesota Duluth with a game-high 18 points followed by Peter Crawford and Reece Zoelle with 14 and 11 points respectively.
Minnesota Duluth hit 28 of 55 shots from the field for 50.9 percent, including 17 for 26 (65.4%) in the second half. The Bulldogs were 6 for 14 behind the arc and 14 of 19 at the charity stripe.
UMD won the rebounding battle over Wayne State 38-28 thanks to seven rebounds from Reece Zoelle while Wayne State's top rebounder was Bartling with nine. Both teams had 13 turnovers in the game.
The Wildcats return home next weekend to Rice Auditorium, hosting Upper Iowa Friday evening at 8 p.m. and #25 Winona State Saturday in a 6 p.m. contest.
