With a chance for a home weekend sweep on the line, NSIC basketball moved to the halfway point of the league schedule for Wayne State College.
Back at Rice Auditorium, the Wildcats played host to University of Mary on Saturday.
The Wayne State College women suffered a 53-51 loss while the Wildcat men picked up an 83-58 victory against the visiting Marauders.
In the women’s outing, University of Mary took an 18-14 first quarter lead before adding to their lead thanks to a 12-11 second quarter to go up 30-25 at the break. WSC would chip away in the second half with a 13-12 third and 13-11 fourth. Final favored University of Mary winning 53-51 to improve to 9-5 (6-4 NSIC) while the Wildcats fell to 8-7 (5-6 NSIC).
The Marauders took the two-point lead with eight seconds remaining while WSC missed a shot to force overtime.
Wayne State College leaders were junior Kylah VanDonkersgoed (5-13 FG/4-6 3PT/3-4 FT) with 17 points and nine rebounds, one steal and one block; senior Tate Norblade (3-10 FG/1-1 3PT/7-8 FT) followed with 14 points, nine rebounds, six assists and two steals as senior Maya Fitzpatrick (2-7 FG/1-4 3PT/5-6 FT) fouled out with 10 points, three rebounds and three steals.
Other scoring came from sophomore Brooklyn Kruse (one assist/one block) with five points, junior Rachel Dahlen (three rebounds/one steal/one block) added three points as junior Meg Rietz (three rebounds/one assist/one steal) scored two points.
The Wildcats shot 13-54 (24.1%) from the field, 6-17 (35.3%) from behind the arc and 19-24 (79.2%) at the foul line.
University of Mary was led in scoring by Beren Kinnebrew with 14 points.
The Marauders finished 19-55 (34.5%) from the floor, 2-17 (11.8%) from the three-point line and 13-19 (68.4%) from the charity stripe.
University of Mary outrebounded Wayne State College, 46-37 including 12 to 9 offensive which led to 12 second chance points compared to two second chance points for WSC. Wayne State College scored 14 points off of 16 University of Mary turnovers while the Marauders scored 11 points off of 12 Wildcat turnovers.
UMary won the battle in the paint (34-8), fast break scoring (11-2) and bench scoring (19-8).
During the men’s game, WSC started quickly by going up 36-27 at the break and built their lead to at-most 30 points with under four minutes remaining in the game. Wayne State College used a 47-31 advantage in the second half. Final favored the Wildcats winning 83-58 to improve to 10-7 (4-7 NSIC) while University of Mary dropped their sixth straight falling to 4-15 (2-8 NSIC).
Wayne State College leaders were freshman Matt Noll (9-13 FG/2-3 3PT/2-2 FT) with 22 points and four rebounds; sophomore JJ Ferrin (6-9 FG/2-4 3PT) added 14 points, three rebounds and two steals as fifth-year senior Cody McCullough (4-6 FG/5-8 FT) followed with 13 points, five rebounds, one assist and one block.
Other scoring came from fifth-year senior Jay Saunders (eight rebounds/four assists/four steals) tallied eight points; junior transfer Kai Smith (two rebounds/three assists) and sophomore Landon Classen (one rebound/two steals) both scored six points; fifth-year senior Sean Stokes (one rebound/one assist/two steals) tacked on five points; freshman Nassir Binion (two rebound/one steal) recorded three points as two-point scoring came from fifth-year senior Noah Erickson (two rebounds/one assist), senior Ryan Blum (two rebounds/one assist) and redshirt freshman Aiden Sullivan.
The Wildcats shot 30-54 (55.6%) from the field, 5-15 (33.3%) from behind the arc and 18-24 (75%) at the foul line.
University of Mary was led in scoring by Ty Rogers with 16 points as Wylee Delorme followed with 10 points.
The Marauders finished 21-50 (42%) from the floor, 3-18 (16.7%) from the three-point line and 13-23 (56.5%) from the charity stripe.
Wayne State College outrebounded University of Mary, 33-29 including 6 to 9 offensive which led to eight second chance points compared to 10 second chance points for UMary. Wayne State College scored 20 points off of 15 University of Mary turnovers while the Marauders scored 14 points off of 11 Wildcat turnovers.
WSC won the battle in the paint (34-32) and fast break scoring (19-6) while University of Mary won the bench scoring (26-21).
With 11 league games remaining, the Wayne State College women and men will flip game times for the rest of the regular season. WSC will host Minot State University on Friday, January 17 at 5:30/7:30 p.m. with the men’s game being played first.
