Box Score Minnesota Crookston 92 Wayne State 78

            Minnesota Crookston senior Harrison Cleary scored 35 of his game-high 52 points in the second half as the host Golden Eagles pulled away for a 92-78 Northern Sun Conference men's basketball win over Wayne State College Saturday evening in Crookston, Minnesota.  UMC is now 7-4 overall and 3-2 in the NSIC while WSC falls to 5-8 and 2-3.
            The 'Cats took early leads of 10-4 and 12-7 on UMC, but the Golden Eagles stormed back and tied the score at 17-17.
            UMC pushed the lead to seven at 35-28, but WSC tied the score at 35-35 right before halftime until the host Golden Eagles sank a pair of free throws with four seconds to play in the half to take a 37-35 lead at intermission.
            Wayne State scored the first eight points of the second half and took a 43-37 lead on a Nick Ferrarini 3-pointer with 18:45 to play.
            But the second half belonged to Cleary and the Golden Eagles.
            The final lead of the game for Wayne State was 48-47 at the 15:55 mark.
            UMC built the lead to 10 at 63-53 with 11:23 to play.  WSC got as close as four at 65-61, but Cleary took the game over and the Golden Eagles pulled away making 8-14 3-pointers in the second half and 17-21 free throws to take down the Wildcats 92-78.          
            Al'Tavius Jackson paced Wayne State in scoring with 17 points on 8-11 shooting.  Other Wildcats in double figures were Nate Mohr (16), Jordan Janssen (13) and Ben Dentlinger (11).
            Wayne State shot 50.9 percent for the game making 29 of 57 shots.  The 'Cats were 8 for 26 from the 3-point line and 12 of 16 (75%) at the stripe.
            Harrison Cleary scorched the nets for 52 points, the lone double figure scorer, to lead Minnesota Crookston.
            The Golden Eagles were 26 of 55 from the field for 47.3 percent and sank 14 of 26 3-pointers.  UMC was also strong shooting from the free throw line going 26 of 32 for 81.3 percent.
            Minnesota Crookston had a 34-30 advantage in rebounding over WSC with Dentlinger and Janssen each grabbing seven rebounds for the Wildcats.  Janssen handed out six assists and had two steals for WSC.
Wayne State will close out their non-conference schedule Wednesday evening with a makeup game at Nebraska-Kearney starting at 6 p.m.  The game will be played at Kearney High School.