Sioux Falls 79 Wayne State 77

            Sioux Falls spoiled Senior Night at Wayne State and sole possession of an NSIC South Division title for the Wildcats by rallying for a 79-77 Northern Sun Conference men's basketball victory over Wayne State College Saturday evening at Rice Auditorium in Wayne.  WSC ends the regular season at 19-9 overall and in a three-way tie for first in the NSIC South Division (with Minnesota State and Augustana) at 14-8 in league play.  USF is now 18-10 and 13-9 in the NSIC.
            Due to the three-way tie, Wayne State fell to the #3 seed in the South Division and will host North Division #6 seed University of Mary in the opening round of the NSIC Tournament Wednesday evening in Wayne.
            WSC jumped out early to a 14-3 lead in the first 3:30 of the game.  The Wildcats maintained a double digit lead a majority of the first half until a late run by the Cougars cut the WSC lead to six at halftime.
            The Wildcats took their biggest lead of the night at 42-30 with 2:10 to play in the half on a pair of Nick Ferrarini free throws. 
            But USF drained a trio of 3-pointers late to cut the Wildcat advantage to 45-39 at intermission.
            Wayne State pushed the lead to nine several times in the second half with the final one coming at 55-46 with 14:47 to play after a Trevin Joseph 3-pointer.
            Sioux Falls charged back and took their first lead of the game at 62-61 with 9:05 to play.
            Wayne State responded and regained the lead, but the 'Cats final lead wa at 68-66 on a Nate Mohr basket with 6:42 remaining.
            USF scored the next eight points to grab a 74-68 lead.
            WSC cut the deficit to one with 48 seconds to play on a pair of Vance Janssen free throws and again at 78-77 on two more Vance Janssen free throws with 12.7 remaining.
            Sioux Falls got one of two free throws from Drew Guebert with 12.3 to play for the final margin of 79-77.
            Kendall Jacks scored 20 points for Wayne State and moved into fifth place on the all-time scoring list with 1,575 points.  He needs just two points to reach fourth place, held by Dennis Siefkes (1,576 points from 1969-73).
            Trevin Joseph added 17 points with Vance Janssen scoring 15 and Jordan Janssen 10. 
            Wayne State ended the game making 28 of 59 shots for 47.5 percent, including 6 of 21 behind the arc, while making 15 of 18 (83.3%) from the foul line.
            Drew Guebert accounted for 20 points to lead Sioux Falls.  Chase Grinde and Aaron Rothermund each added 16 points for the Cougars.
            USF shot 57 percent from the field on 32 of 56 and was 6 of 16 from the 3-point line to go with 9-13 at the stripe.
            Sioux Falls held a commanding 34-23 edge in rebounding over WSC with Jordan Janssen grabbing six boards for the Wildcats.
            Vance Janssen had four assists for WSC while sophomore Ben Dentlinger recorded three blocked shots, making him the single season blocked shots leader at WSC with 39.  The old record was 37 by Byron Haas in the 1986-87 season.
            Wayne State will host a first round game in the NSIC/Sanford Health Men's Basketball Tournament for the first time since the 2000-01 season Wednesday evening at 6 p.m. vs. the University of Mary in Rice Auditorium.