Minnesota Duluth 94 Wayne State 80 OT

            Minnesota Duluth outscored Wayne State 14-0 in overtime as the host Bulldogs held back Wayne State 94-80 in overtime in Northern Sun Conference men's basketball played Friday evening at Romano Gymnasium in Duluth, Minnesota.  UMD is now 9-8 and 6-5 in league play while WSC falls to 3-14 and 0-11 in the NSIC.
            The first half was a back and forth affair that featured seven ties and 14 lead changes.  With the score tied at 35 with 3:42 to play in the first half, UMD scored 10 of the final 12 points of the first half to take a 45-37 lead at intermission.
            Wayne State trailed the entire second half, but battled back from a 12-point deficit to tie the game late and force overtime.
            The host Bulldogs held a 76-64 lead with 5:35 to play.  WSC got within one at 78-77 on a Trae VandeBerg 3-pointer with 40 seconds to play.  UMD's Pierre Newton sank two free throws to put the Bulldogs up 80-77 with 19 seconds to play.
            Wayne State's Kendall Jacks was fouled with 11 seconds left and made one of two free throws, but the miss was rebounded by VandeBerg who converted on the putback to tie the score at 80 and send the game into overtime.
            But in the overtime, WSC went cold and was 0 for 7 from the field while UMD was 3 for 5 and 8 of 11 at the foul line to put away the Wildcats 94-80 in overtime.
            Freshman guard Trae VandeBerg led Wayne State in scoring with 21 points.  It was his third 20-point game in his last seven contests.  Senior center Patrick Kurth added 18 points while freshman forward Jordan Cornelius and freshman forward Kendall Jacks also hit double figures with 15 and 10 points respectively.
            WSC shot 29 of 66 from the field for 43.9 percent, going 6 for 21 from 3-point range and 16 of 20 at the free throw line.
            Pierre Newton led Minnesota Duluth with 31 points followed by Brett Ervin with 25.  Brendon Pineda also hit double figures with 13. 
            UMD shot a sizzling 63 percent from the field making 34 of 54 shots.  The Bulldogs were 6 of 11 from behind the arc and 20 for 31 at the free throw stripe.
            Minnesota Duluth won the rebounding battle over WSC 36-30.  Pineda hauled in 10 boards for the Bulldogs while Wayne State's top rebounder was Kurth with eight.
            WSC had just 10 turnovers in the game to eight for UMD.  Sophomore Joel Heesch had five of Wayne State's nine assists while Kurth recorded both WSC blocks. 
            The Wildcats will be on the road again Saturday visiting St. Cloud State in a 6 p.m. NSIC contest.