MSU Moorhead 95 Wayne State 84

            Wayne State senior Jared Bartling finished with a career-best 24 points, but it wasn't enough as Wayne State fell 95-84 to Minnesota State Moorhead in Northern Sun Conference play on Saturday night at Rice Auditorium in Wayne, Neb. With the loss, WSC falls to 8-16 overall, 5-15 in conference play, while the Dragons improve to 17-7, 13-7 in NSIC play.
 
            On senior night, the four Wildcat seniors, Bartling (24), Ty Bauschek (15), Ryan Rolfzen (13) and Adol Aluong (10) combined for 62 of the total 84 points on the night.
 
            The Wildcats were playing catch up early, after missing their first six shots and seeing MSU Moorhead jump out to a 9-0 lead just four minutes into the opening frame. It didn't take long (1:38 to be exact) for the Wildcats to claw their way right back to an even game, 9-9. Bartling's old-fashioned three point play got the Wildcats on the board before Rolfzen drained his first three-pointer of the night. Another old-fashioned three point play by Bartling knotted the game with 14:14 to play.
 
            Moorhead would again pull out in front, going on a 7-0 run to take a 16-9 lead with 12:36 in the opening half. A pair of Ty Bauschek free throws and a layup by Patrick Kurth cut the lead in half with just under 10 minutes to play in the opening half. After a pair of Tarell Clark free throws, jumpers by Bauschek and Rolfzen cut the margin back to one, WSC trailing just 18-17 with 8:35.
 
            The two teams would evenly exchange buckets in the next five possessions before MSUM closed out the half with a 12-9 advantage, extending their lead to as many as 13 points (38-25) with 2:28 to play in the first half. The Dragons took a 42-33 lead into the locker room at the break.
 
            The Wildcats struck first coming out after half, when Rolfzen drained a three-pointer on the first possession of the second half. But MSU Moorhead would respond with a pair of fast break layups and a jumper in the paint to extend their lead to 12, 48-36 with 18:27 to play.
 
            Again, WSC would battle back, this time cutting the lead to eight thanks to layups from Bartling and David Andersen to trail 52-44 with 15:25 in the game. And yet again, MSUM would take advantage of missed Wildcat opportunities to answer and extend their lead, using a 13-4 run to go up by a game-high 17 points, 65-48 with 12:33 remaining in the game.
 
            But on senior night in Rice Auditorium, the Wildcats would continue to fight. Patrick Kurth drained a pair of free throws and blocked a Dragon shot before Kenny Finco knocked down a three-pointer to close the gap to 12, 71-59. Missed shots on three straight possessions by the Dragons led to a Gary Ross layup, WSC trailing 71-61 with 8:50 to play.
 
            Bartling again cut into the lead, with a pair of free throw shots and a layup to pull WSC within eight, 73-65 with 7:24 remaining in the game. Again, the two teams would exchange baskets, with the Wildcats led by five points (a layup and three-pointer) from Bauschek to keep an eight point deficit, 78-70, with 4:19 to play.
 
            The Dragons kept their margin, extending it to as many as 13 points with just under two minutes to play, to hold off the Wildcats for a 95-84 win.
 
            In his final regular season home game as a Wildcat, Jared Bartling led the Wildcats with a career-best 24 points while pulling down a team-leading 10 rebounds. Fellow seniors Ty Bauschek, Ryan Rolfzen and Adol Aloung finished the night with 15, 13 and 10 points, respectively. Wayne State shot 38.9 percent from the floor, including finishing 9-22 from outside the arc.
 
            Pacing the Dragons on Saturday night was Tarell Clark, who finished with a game-high 27 points. Isaac Sevlie and Tyler Vaughan finished with 17 and 12, respectively. MSUM shot 44.3 percent from the field (27-61.) The Dragons held the edge in rebounds (48-35), as well as 2^nd chance points (14-4) and points in the paint (40-32.)
 
            Wayne State will conclude the regular season next weekend, playing at Winona State Friday at 8 p.m. followed by a Saturday 6 p.m. contest at Upper Iowa.