Concordia-St. Paul 80 Wayne State 69

            Wayne State College never recovered from a 17-0 deficit to start the game as the Wildcats suffered an 80-69 loss to Concordia-St. Paul Saturday evening in Northern Sun Conference men's basketball played at Rice Auditorium in Wayne.  The host Wildcats fall to 3-13 and 0-10 in league play as Concordia-St. Paul improves to 9-6 and 5-4 in the NSIC.
            The Wildcats started the game missing their first eight shots from the field while Concordia-St. Paul started 6 for 6 from the field, resulting in a 17-0 Golden Bear advantage at the 14:17 mark of the first half.
            Freshman Austin Esters made one of two free throws to get WSC on the board with 13:57 to go in the half and Tyler Nagy canned a 3-pointer for the first WSC basket 6:31 into the contest.
            WSC got as close as nine in the first half at 20-11 before CU pushed the lead back to 18 at 29-11. 
            Down 36-18 with 3:00 to go in the first half, WSC closed the half on a 8-1 run to cut the Golden Bear lead to 37-26 at intermission.
            The Golden Bears maintained a double digit lead until WSC rallied in the final five minutes.  Trailing 64-51 with 4:49 to play, WSC pulled within six at 65-59 on a pair of Gary Ross free throws with 3:13 remaining. 
            But the Wildcats could get no closer as Concordia-St. Paul finished the second half making 26 of 34 free throws to put away Wayne State 80-69.
            Freshman Austin Esters led Wayne State in scoring with 14 points followed by Jordan Cornelius with 11 and Jordan Holdsworth 10. 
            WSC shot just 37.3 percent from the field, making 19 of 51 shots.  WSC was 3 of 15 from behind the arc and 28 for 34 at the foul line.
            Cole Olstad scored 25 points to pace Concordia-St. Paul in scoring followed by Terez VanPelt with 15.  Jon Sobaski and Nuni Omot also hit double figures with 11 and 10 respectively.
            The Golden Bears made 19 of 43 shots for 44.2 percent, going 9 of 17 from the 3-point line and 33 for 45 at the foul stripe.
            The game featured a combined 52 fouls (29 on WSC and 23 on CU) with a total of 79 free throws shot between the two teams.
            Concordia-St. Paul had a 34-32 edge in rebounding over the Wildcats.  Olstad grabbed 11 boards for the Golden Bears while Cornelius had seven rebounds for WSC.
            Wayne State is on the road next weekend, visiting Minnesota Duluth Friday at 8 p.m. and St. Cloud State Saturday at 6 p.m.