Wayne State’s men won their Northern Sun Conference opener while the Wildcat women came up shor Tuesday in action at Rice Auditorium.
In the men’s game, sophomore guard David Harmon poured in a career-high 21 points to lead Wayne State past Southwest Minnesota State 73-62.
Southwest Minnesota State held a 14-6 lead six minutes into the contest before the Wildcats scored the next nine points and took their first lead of the game at 15-14 following a layup by Elijah Watson.
SWMS scored four straight points to take an 18-15 lead, but a jumper by Harmon followed by a 3-pointer gave WSC the lead for good at 28-18. Southweset got as close as four before the Wildcats ended the half with a 34-26 lead.
A 3-pointer by Harmon at the 17:14 mark of the second half gave the Wildcats their first double-digit advantage of the night at 39-29. Wayne State followed that with a 10-2 run, capped by a Noah Erickson layup with 11:06 to play to make it 49-31.
Southwest got as close as seven at 67-60 with 1:17 left in the contest, but the Wildcats sealed the win making 6-of-8 free throws to improve to 6-0 overall and 1-0 in NSIC action.
Harmon’s career-high 21 points off the bench led Wayne State in scoring. He was 9-of-14 from the and 3-of-5 from downtown while also recording four assists and three steals. Junior forward Cody McCullough added a double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds and was 11-for-12 at the free throw line.
SMSU held a 37-32 edge in rebounding with McCullough grabbing 11 boards for the ‘Cats. Harmon led WSC in assists and steals while Trey Deveaux and McCullough each had one blocked shot.
In the women’s game, Southwest took a 10-point lead in the first five minutes and Wayne State could never recover as the visiting Mustangs defeated the Wildcats 75-68.
Wayne State (2-1, 0-1 NSIC) never led in the contest. After the two teams traded opening baskets, SMSU scored seven straight points for a 9-2 lead and the Mustangs built a 17-6 lead with 4:46 to play in the first quarter. SMSU closed the high-scoring first quarter with a 29-18 lead thanks to 55 percent shooting.
The second quarter saw the Wildcats close within five at 35-30, but the Mustangs pushed the lead back to 11 several times and closed the first half with a 44-33.
WSC rallied to within seven at 54-47 in th ethird, but Southweset responded and took a 14-point lead before finishing the third quarter with a 64-51 lead and went on to post the seven-point win.
Graduate transfer Britney Ho scored 19 points to lead Wayne State followed by Jordon Heckert with 11.
Maya Fitzpatrick and Boswell each grabbed six boards for the Wildcats. Abby Kopecky had four assists and three blocked shots while Tate Norblade was credited with four steals.
The Wildcat men host Nebraska-Kearney on Saturday at 3 p.m. in a non-conference matchup at Rice Auditorium, while the women face Emporia State at 5:30 p.m. in a non-conference matchup.
