#8 Northern State 66 Wayne State 62

            #8 Northern State rallied from a 53-43 deficit with just over 12 minutes remaining to edge Wayne State College 66-62 Saturday afternoon in the Northern Sun Conference men's basketball opener for both teams at Rice Auditorium in Wayne.
            The young Wildcats hung tough with the nationally-ranked Wolves all game long.  After Northern State took an early 9-4 lead, WSC stormed back and grabbed a 12-11 lead on a Jay Saunders 3-pointer at the 11:04 mark of the first half.
            Northern State scored the next five points to take a 16-12 lead, but neither team led by more than three points the remainder of the opening half.
            Baskets by Jordan Janssen and Zach LaFave gave WSC a 25-23 lead with 3:14 to play in the half. 
            With Northern State leading 28-25, WSC used a 3-pointer from Nate Mohr and a pair of Mohr free throws with 32 seconds left in the half to take a 30-28 lead at intermission.
            The 'Cats opened the second half with a Mohr jumper and a Saunders 3-pointer to take a 35-28 lead. 
            NSU closed within three at 44-41, but the Wildcats went on a 9-2 scoring spurt and took their biggest lead of the game at 53-43 following a Cody McCullough free throw with 12:13 remaining.
            The visiting Wolves slowly chipped away at the lead and forged a 60-60 tie with 3:53 to play on a Parker Fox jumper. 
            A dunk by Fox gave Northern State its' first lead of the second half at 62-60 with 2:20 left. 
            WSC tied the score one last time at 62-62 on a Jay Saunders layup with 57 seconds to play.
            Northern's Andrew Kallman drained a 3-pointer with 22 seconds to play for a 65-62 Wolves lead.  Wayne State's Justin Eagins missed on a 3-pointer late and Fox made one of two free throws late to seal the 66-62 win.
            Eagins was the lone Wildcat player in double figures with 10 points followed by Nate Mohr and Jordan Janssen with nine points apiece.
            Wayne State shot 24 of 58 from the field for 41.4 percent, including 5 of 19 behind the arc.  The Wildcats were 9 for 15 (60 percent) at the free throw line.
            Parker Fox paced Northern State with 21 points and 11 rebounds on 10 of 11 shooting from the field.  Mason Stark (17) and Andrew Kallman (11) also hit double digits for the Wolves.
            Northern State made 26 of 54 shots for 48 percent and was 6 for 21 from the 3-point line.  The Wolves were 8 of 15 at the charity stripe.
            The Wolves held a slight 37-34 edge in rebounding over WSC with Eagins grabbing six boards to lead WSC.
            WSC and Northern State face each other again Sunday afternoon in Rice Auditorium for a 1:30 p.m. contest.