Wayne State rallied in the second half but could not overcome a 23-point deficit as host Concordia-St. Paul held off the Wildcats 85-79 Friday evening in a Northern Sun Conference men's basketball contest played at the Gangelhoff Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.  CSP is now 8-2 overall and 3-1 in the league with WSC dropping to 7-3 and 1-3 in NSIC play.
            Wayne State made the opening basket of the game for their lone lead of the night.  CSP scored the next eight points and held an early 10-4 lead.
            The 'Cats closed within one point at 16-15 and 18-17, but the Golden Bears went on a quick 10-1 scoring surge to take a 28-18 lead at the 7:50 mark of the opening half.
            WSC was within six at 28-22, but CSP scored seven straight points to take a 35-22 lead and built the lead to 41-25. 
            Sophomore reserve guard Landon Classen scored the final eight points of the opening half for WSC on a pair of 3-pointers and a jumper as CSP ended the first half with a 44-30 lead at the break.
            Concordia-St. Paul scored the first nine points of the second half for their biggest lead of the game at 53-30.
            WSC then rallied with a 13-2 scoring run, highlighted by a trio of 3-pointers from sophomore guard JJ Ferrin, as the 'Cats cut the deficit to 55-43 at the 14:53 mark.
            The Golden Bears were able to maintain a double-digit advantage for nearly the rest of the second half on the Wildcats.
            After leading by 17 (62-45), WSC got the deficit down to 10 at 64-54 on a Jay Saunders jumper with just over 7:00 to play.
            Later in the half, a WSC steal by Saunders resulted in a Ferrin layup to cut the Golden Bear advantage to just six at 74-68 with 2:37 remaining. 
            WSC was able to get as close as five a couple of times in the final minute as Concordia-St. Paul closed with a 85-79 victory.
            Ferrin scored 22 points for Wayne State followed by Jay Saunders with 12, Sean Stokes 11 and Kai Smith and Classen with 10 points each.  For Classen it was his first career double digit game, going 3 of 4 from the field making a pair of 3-pointers and both free throws for 10 points in just 13 minutes playing time. 
            WSC was 32 of 69 shooting for 46.4 percent, including 9 of 25 behind the arc and just 6 of 8 at the line.
            Ben Kopetzki poured in 21 points for the Golden Bears.  Antwan Kimmons followed with 17, Marcus Skeete 16 and Cade Meyer 13.
            CSP shot 48.4 percent from the field making 30 of 62 shots, going 10 of 24 (41.7%) from the 3-point line.  The Golden Bears were just 15 of 26 (57%) at the free throw line.
            Concordia-St. Paul held a sizeable 44-29 edge in rebounding with Sean Stokes grabbing five boards for WSC.  Saunders had six assists and four steals.
            The Wildcats close out their NSIC road trip Saturday in a 5:30 p.m. contest at Minnesota Duluth.