Box Score Winona State 89 Wayne State 71

            Winona State raced out to a 48-28 halftime lead and shot 57 percent for the game as the Warriors cruised past Wayne State College 89-71 in the Northern Sun Conference regular season men's basketball finale Saturday evening at McCown Gymnasium in Winona, Minnesota.  Winona State is 19-9 and 14-8 in the NSIC South while WSC is now 14-16 and 9-13 in league play.
            Wayne State held the lead for the opening 10 minutes of the game before the host Warriors took control of the contest.
            The biggest lead for the 'Cats came at 8-4 following a Jordan Cornelius layup.
            The two teams traded the lead five times with two lead changes early in the game.
            Wayne State's last lead came at 13-12 on a Trevin Joseph 3-pointer at the 12:58 mark of the half.
            With WSC trailing 16-15, the Warriors scored nine straight points to take their first double digit lead at 25-15 with 9:50 to play in the half. 
            WSC still trailed by 10 at 32-22 with 6:07 to go before halftime, but Winona State put the game out of reach by closing the half with a 16-6 run to build a commanding 48-28 lead at intermission.
            Winona State maintained their sizeable lead throughout the second half, using 15 of 26 shooting in the second half (57.7%) to thwart any Wildcat rally as the Warriors finished with an 89-71 win.
            Trevin Joseph led Wayne State in scoring with 26 points, going 9 of 16 from the field, 4 for 8 behind the arc and 4 of 6 at the free throw line.  Kendall Jacks and Matt Thomas also hit double digits with 11 and 10 points respectively.
            Wayne State shot just 33 percent in the first half (9-27) and finished the game making 25 of 56 shots for 44.6 percent.  The 'Cats were 8 of 21 from the 3-point line and 13 of 18 at the free throw line.
            Six players reached double figures for Winona State with Corey Jeffs leading the way scoring 17.  Devin Whitelow added 15, Caleb Wagner 14 and Tommy Gathje 13.  Kevion Taylor and Charlie Koontz added 11 each.
            Winona State made 31 of 54 shots for 57.4 percent, including 10 of 19 behind the arc.  The Warriors were 17 for 21 at the free throw line.
            The Warriors won the rebounding battle over the Wildcats 35-25.  Jacks hauled in six boards for WSC.
            Wayne State will be in the first round of the NSIC Sanford Health Men's Basketball Tournament Wednesday evening and will play at North Division #2 seed St. Cloud State in an 8 p.m. contest.