Box Score Northern State 76 Wayne State 66
Wayne State College shot a season-worst 32.3 percent (21-65) from the field as the Wildcats suffered a 76-66 defeat to Northern State in Northern Sun Conference men's basketball Friday evening at Rice Auditorium in Wayne. WSC drops to 5-12 and 3-8 in league play while NSU improves to 12-5 and 8-3 in the NSIC.
Northern State held a pair of six point leads early in the contest, but WSC battled back to take the lead.
With the Wolves leading 17-11 at the 10:25 mark, WSC scored eight straight points and took their first lead of the game at 19-17 on a pair of
Brian Goodwin free throws with 7:41 to play in the half.
The two teams exchanged seven ties and four lead changes the rest of the half and Northern State ended with a 31-29 lead on a Brayden McNeary layup to end the half.
Northern State opened the second half with a 14-6 run to take a 45-35 lead. WSC used a
Luke TerHark 3-pointer to get within seven at 45-38, but that's as close as the Wildcats would get.
The Wolves scored the next seven points for a 52-38 lead and the Wildcats never got closer than nine the rest of the game as Northern State finished with the 76-66 win.
WSC shot a season-low 32.3 percent making just 21 of 65 shots. The 'Cats were 7 for 23 behind the arc and 17 of 23 (73.9%) at the charity stripe.
TerHark led the Wildcats with a career-high 16 points while
Kendall Jacks finished in double figures for a ninth straight game with 15.
Northern State made 22 of 45 shots in the contest for 48.9 percent. The Wolves were 7 for 17 from 3-point range and 25 of 32 at the charity stripe.
Logan Doyle paced NSU in scoring with a game-high 23 points followed by DJ Pollard with 14.
The Wolves won the rebounding battle over WSC 43-32. Jacks and
Jordan Cornelius each grabbed six boards for the Wildcats.
The Wildcats will be at home again Saturday evening hosting MSU Moorhead in a 6 p.m. contest at Rice Auditorium.
