Winona State 75 Wayne State 57

            Wayne State College suffered a 75-57 setback at Winona State Friday evening in Northern Sun Conference men's basketball played at McCown Gymnasium in Winona, Minnesota.  The host Warriors remain in a first place tie in the NSIC at 18-3 in league play and 23-5 overall while Wayne State drops to 8-17 and 5-16 in the NSIC.
            After WSC opened the game with the first basket by Adol Aluong for a 2-0 lead, Winona State scored eight straight points for an 8-2 lead.  The 'Cats got as close as three points at 18-15 with 7:38 to go in the first half following a Joel Heesch 3-pointer. 
            The host Warriors pushed the lead back to nine moments later and still held a six point lead at 32-26 with 1:31 left before halftime until Winona State finished the half with six straight points to take a 38-26 lead at intermission.
            Wayne State was never able to get the lead into single digits again.  WSC trailed by 11 at 48-37 following a Ryan Rolfzen trey with 14:18 to go in the game.  But Winona State scored 10 of the next 12 points to put the game out of reach, leading 58-39 with 11:44 to play.  The Warriors pushed the lead to as many as 24 points before finishing with the 75-57 win.
            Senior forward Ryan Rolfzen led Wayne State in scoring with 16 points on 6 of 11 shooting including 4 for 9 from the 3-point line.  Senior guard Ty Bauschek also reached double digits for WSC with 11 points.
            Wayne State shot 35.8 percent from the field making 19 of 53 shots, including 7 for 25 from 3-point range. 
            Winona State's top scorer was Riley Bambenek with 15 points.  Kellen Taylor and Josh Mongan added 13 points apiece while Mark Blacklock had 10.
            The Warriors were 26 of 59 from the floor for 44.1 percent.  Winona State was 7 of 21 from the 3-point line and 16 for 23 at the charity stripe.
            Winona State had a 42-31 advantage in rebounding over Wayne State thanks to 12 rebounds by Kellen Taylor.  Wayne State's top rebounder was Joel Heesch with seven followed by Rolfzen with six.
            The Wildcats will conclude the regular season Saturday evening with a 6 p.m. game at Upper Iowa.