The Wayne State basketball teams took care of business on the home floor Saturday, finishing off Upper Iowa to get a season sweep from both the men’s and women’s basketball teams.
In the women’s game, the Wildcats had no problems posting a 99-74 win in a game that marked the return of former Wayne State assistant coach Kelly Kielsmeier to Rice Auditorium after he was named interim head coach of the Peacocks one week ago.
The Wildcat women (11-5, 6-4 NSIC) jumped out to a 16-8 lead in the first quarter, increasing their lead to 25-15 by the end of the quarter. Erin Norling paced the Wildcats with seven points in the first 10 minutes, while Halley Busse finished the opening quarter with three of her four assists.
Wayne State opened the second quarter on a 12-3 run to extend the lead to 37-18. The Wildcats used blistering defense to create seven turnovers from the Peacocks, translating to a 12-1 advantage in points-off-turnovers for Wayne State. Another 25-15 quarter in favor for Wayne State put the Wildcats in a comfortable 50-30 advantage going into the break.
Kylie Hammer joined in on the high-scoring affair in the third, scoring eight straight points for the Wildcats, including back-to-back treys, to give Wayne State a 61-39 edge. Wayne State put up 27 points in the third, tied for their third-best performance in a quarter on a season and providing a 77-55 lead going to the final period, where they finished with the 25-point victory for their highest margin of victory this season.
Busse led a quintet of Wildcats in double-figures, ending the night on 18 points and four assists. Norling (five assists) and Hammer (four assists) finished with 17 points apiece, while Haley Vesey scored 14 points. Bongartz joined with 11 points of her own, her 12th straight game scoring in double digits. Upper Iowa’s Savannah Domeyer led all scorers with 20 points.
In the men’s game, Wayne State improved to 13-3 overall and 8-2 in the conference by hanging on for an 85-81 win and a season sweep of the Peacocks.
Upper Iowa took an early 10-5 lead, but Wayne State rallied with a 11-2 run and built a 16-12 lead on a Jordan Janssen jumper at the 13:19 mark.
With the score tied at 30-30, Wayne State went on a 10-4 run and closed the half on a Trevin Joseph 3-pointer to lead 40-34 at intermission.
Early in the second half, Wayne State used back-to-back baskets from Jordan Janssen to take their biggest lead of the game at 53-45 with 15:02 to play, but the Peacocks came back and capped a 9-0 run to take a 64-62 lead with 8:38 to go.
Wayne State regained the lead and led by as many as seven after a pair of Jordan Janssen free throws with 3:53 to go, but the Peacocks scored seven straight of their own to tie the game at 81-81 with 2:10 left in regulation.
Neither team could find the basket in the final two minutes, but Wayne State got four free throws from Joseph, the final two with 4.6 seconds left, to come away with the win.
Joseph led Wayne State in scoring with 28 points with Kendall Jacks, Vance Janssen and Jordan Janssen each adding 16. Jacks moved into ninth place on the all-time scoring list at Wayne State with 1,377 points after his 16-point effort Saturday. Upper Iowa had the game’s top scorer in Munachiso Okonkwo, who scored 31 points.
Wayne State won the rebounding battle 36-29 thanks to six boards each from Nick Ferrarini and Jordan Janssen. Vance Janssen handed out six assists while Jordan Janssen had three steals.
The Wildcats are on the road next weekend, playing at MSU Moorhead Friday at 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. and Northern State on Saturday at 4 and 6 p.m.
