Wayne State 69 Northern State 53

            Wayne State used 20 points and seven rebounds from redshirt freshman guard Justin Eagins while holding Northern State to just 39 percent shooting as the Wildcats downed the Wolves 69-53 Friday evening in Northern Sun Conference men's basketball played at Rice Auditorium in Wayne.  For WSC, now 8-6 and 5-3 in the NSIC South, it was just the second win in the last 10 meetings against NSU dating back to 2014 while Northern State drops to 10-7 and 4-5 in NSIC North play.
            The first half was close early until a late scoring surge by WSC in the first half put the Wildcats in control.
            WSC opened with a 7-5 lead, but the visiting Wolves reeled off the next 10 points and took a 15-10 lead at the 11:14 mark of the first half.
            Northern State was still in front 22-19 at the 4:40 mark when the Wildcats went on a 10-0 run over the next 2:42 and the 'Cats took a 29-22 lead on a Cody McCullough tip in with 1:58 left before halftime as WSC closed the half with a 33-24 advantage.
            The Wildcats took their first double digit lead of the second half at 37-27 following a Justin Eagins fast break layup and the 'Cats pushed the lead to 12 at 44-32 on an Alec Millender trey.
            Northern State rallied and closed to within five at 48-43 with 10:27 to play, but WSC scored the next seven points and pushed the lead back to double digits at 55-443 with 7:51 left on a Sean Stokes 3-pointer.
            The Wolves made one more run at the Wildcats and got as close as six at 55-49, but WSC used a pair of Eagins free throws and a Millender 3-pointer and went in front 60-49 and pulled away for the 69-53 victory.
            Eagins led WSC in scoring with 20 points.  Jordan Janssen added 12 and Millender finished with 11. 
            Wayne State made 25 of 56 shots for 44.6 percent, including 9 for 25 behind the 3-point line.  The 'Cats were 10-12 at the free throw stripe.
            Jordan Belka scored 20 points for Northern State.  Sam Masten added 11.
            The Wolves shot 39.2 percent from the field on 20 of 51 shots and were 7-26 from the 3-point line while going 6 for 11 at the charity stripe.
            WSC held a slim 34-32 edge in rebounding over the Wolves with Janssen hauling in eight boards followed by Eagins with seven. 
            Northern State had 15 turnovers to just nine on the Wildcats and both teams had 13 points off turnovers.
            Senior forward Ben Dentlinger had four blocked shots for WSC while Millender, Jay Saunders and Eagins each had three assists. 
            Wayne State's scheduled home game Saturday at 3:30 p.m. vs. MSU Moorhead has been canceled due to COVID protocols within the Dragons program.  The next scheduled game for the Wildcats is Friday, January 14 at the University of Mary at 5:30 p.m.