The Wayne State men’s basketball team played well on the road over the weekend, coming home with wins over Northern State and University of Mary.
On Friday, redshirt sophomore guard Alec Millender’s 12 foot jumper with 4.3 seconds remaining helped the Wildcats hold off a furious second-half comeback by Northern State for a 70-69 victory, the first road win in conference play for WSC.
Wayne State led for all but 29 seconds of the game and led by as many as 19, but had to hold off a furious second-half comeback by the host Wolves.
The Wildcats took advantage of horrendous shooting by the Wolves on their home court in the first half to take a 31-18 lead at the half. Northern shot 21.9 percent (7-32) from the floor in the first half, compared to Wayne State’s 38.2 percent effort (13-34).
Wayne State broke and 11- tie with a 16-3 run over a span of 8:11 to help build that 13-point advantage, and a pair of 3-pointers by Trey Deveaux made it 37-18 early in the second half.
Northern State heated up in the second half, making 14 of their first 17 shots from the field, but the Wildcats still had things in hand with a 61-48 advantage midway through the second half.
Northern State launched its comeback effort at that point, scoring the next 11 points and closed within two at 61-59 with 5:26 left after a Josh Dilling 3-pointer.
Five straight points by Sean Stokes and two Millender free throws made it 68-61 with 2:39 to go, but Northern’s Jacksen Moni then scored the next eight points on a 3-pointer followed by five straight free throws to give the Wolves their lone lead of the game at 69-68 with :33 left.
Moni missed the second of two free throws and Deveaux grabbed the rebound to set up the game-winning play by Millender, who dribbled left and hit a 12-foot step-back jumper with 4.3 seconds to play to give Wayne State the dramatic win.
Millender ended the game with 21 points for Wayne State. Deveaux added 13 with David Harmon scoring 12. Moni poured in 21 points for Northern State followed by Dilling with 18 points.
WSC won the rebounding battle over NSU 39-33 thanks to six boards from Elijah Watson. Millender had a team-high five assists while Stokes had two of Wayne State’s three blocked shots.
On Saturday, Deveaux and Millender combined for 36 points as Wayne State shot 52 percent for the game to finish the weekend with a 73-53 win at the University of Mary in Bismarck, N.D.
The Wildcats led for all but one minute early in the game. A 14-4 run midway through the half, highlighted by a fast-break dunk buy Noah Erickson, made it 24-13 with 5:19 to go and the Wildcats closed the half with a 32-18 advantage.
The Wildcats maintained a double-digit lead for much of the second half, holding off an early Mary rally, and the ‘Cats surged at the end of the half to finish with the easy 20-point win.
Deveaux led Wayne State in scoring with 19 points followed by Millender with 17 as a total of 10 different Wildcats scored in the contest. Rich Ashu was the top scorer for the University of Mary with eight points.
Stokes was the top WSC rebounder with five. Millender was credited with six assists while Deveaux had two blocked shots.
Wayne State (11-7, 4-7 NSIC) goes back on the road again this weekend, visiting St. Cloud State Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Bemidji State Saturday at 5:30 p.m.
