Northern State 90 Wayne State 59

Northern State's hot offense was too much for the Wayne State men's basketball team on Friday night, holding off the Wildcats for a 90-59 NSU win in Northern Sun Conference basketball played at Rice Auditorium in Wayne. The win improves the Wolves to 15-10, 10-9 in NSIC play, while WSC falls to 8-15, 5-14 in the league.
 
            The two teams exchanged baskets early in the game, seeing a pair of tie games in the first six minutes. Northern State jumped out to an early 4-0 lead, before a layup by Jared Bartling and a fast break layup from Joel Heesch tied the game 4-4 with 16:54 remaining in the opening half. Another Bartling jumper answered Carter Evans' jumper to knot the game at 6-6.
 
            NSU scored 10 of the next 13 points, with the lone Wildcats basket a three-pointer from Ty Bauschek. WSC fell behind 16-9 with 9:43 to play in the opening frame. The game remained close the next 10 minutes, with the Wolves and Wildcats exchanging baskets (including four points from David Andersen and a trifecta from Bauschek) to keep it a seven point game, 25-18 advantage NSU, with 5:54 to play.
 
            Back-to-back three-pointers from Spencer Pankonin and Darin Peterka began a 24-7 run by Northern State to close out the first half. A trio of Andersen free throws, a Bauschek jumper and Ryan Rolfzen layup combined for WSC's points to end the first half.
 
            Northern State scored four of the first five points of the second half before Wayne State went on their biggest run of the game to that point. A Joel Heesch tip-in, Adol Aluong layup and Heesch fast break capped the 6-0 run, closing the deficit to 53-32 NSU with 15:36 to play.
 
            But the Northern State offense did not cool. The Wolves would extend their lead to as many as 34 points, 75-41, with 7:51 remaining in the game, before extending it to a game-high 37 points with 2:36 remaining. After an Andersen layup with 1:16 on the clock, neither team would score in the final minute of play.
 
            Wayne State was led offensively by David Andersen, who finished with 17 points.  Ty Bauschek added 12 points and Ryan Rolfzen picked up 10 boards.
 
            The Wildcats shot 32.8 percent from the floor on Friday night, converting 20-61 baskets.
 
For the Wolves, Darin Peterka scored a game-high 23 points, with Skye Warwick adding 14. NSU shot 61.9 percent (26-42) from the floor on Friday, including finishing 10-20 from beyond the arc. Northern State also held the rebounding edge, with a 35-32 advantage on the boards.
 
            Wayne State will play their final home game of the season Saturday when MSU Moorhead visits Rice Auditorium for a 6 p.m. contest.