Saturday was a good day for Wildcat basketball, as the Wayne State women continued their dominance over Southwest Minnesota State while the Wildcat men got their first win in 19 years on the road in Marshall, Minn.
The Wildcat men nearly squandered a 14-point lead in the final 6 1/2 minutes, but held on for a 75-68 win over the Mustangs, marking just the second win in the last 16 games over Southwest and the first on their home court since a desperation 3-pointer by Brad Joens gave the Wildcats a 67-65 win on Feb. 12, 2000.
The two teams had three ties and one lead change early until Wayne State took the lead for good with a six-point run, capped by an Al’Tavius Jackson trey with 11:15 to go in the first half to make it 17-11.
Wayne State led by as many as 13 points in the first half before the Mustangs cut the lead to six at the half, 40-34. Wayne State (11-3, 6-2 NSIC) maintained the lead the rest of the game, but held off a late charge by the Mustangs to get the hard-fought win.
Wayne State took another 13-point lead at 57-44 with 11:46 to play, but Southwest rallied and got within six at 59-53 before the Wildcats countered with eight straight points to lead 67-53 after a three-point play by Jordan Janssen with 7:33 to go.
Wayne State didn’t score another basket the last 6:33 of the game after a Janssen dunk made it 71-57. Southwest got within four with 1:23 to go, using an 11-1 run to make it interesting before Trevin Joseph went 3-of-4 at the free throw line to close out the win.
Kendall Jacks paced Wayne State with 15 points followed by Jackson with a season-high 14 off the bench. Joseph and Jordan Janssen also hit double figures with 12 and 11, respectively.
After getting outrebounded Friday night at Sioux Falls 48-24, WSC bounced back with a great night on the glass out-rebounding the Mustangs 45-33 thanks to nine boards from Jacks and Jordan Janssen. Jacks also had five assists to lead WSC while Vance Janssen had three steals.
In women’s action, Maggie Lowe hit the go-ahead basket with 33.8 seconds remaining, then Wayne State stopped Southwest Minnesota State three times in the final 30 seconds to hang on for a 76-74 win, their 19th in a row over the Mustangs, to improve to 9-4 overall and 4-4 in NSIC action.
The Wildcats used 50 percent shooting in the first quarter, highlighted by baskets from Lowe, Erin Norling, Kylie Hammer and Andrea Larson to build their biggest lead of the game at 17-8 before ending the quarter with a 21-17 advantage.
Southwest Minnesota State scored the first six points of the second quarter to take a 23-21 lead and eventually pushed the lead to seven at 39-32 with 2:34 remaining in the half, but Wayne State responded with a 10-0 run that included a pair of 3-pointers by Hailey Busse to take a 42-39 halftime advantage.
A tightly contested third quarter saw neither team lead by more than four points with the exception of one time when Busse canned a pair of free throws at the 3:02 mark of the quarter, giving Wayne State a 60-55 advantage. The Wildcats used a Busse jumper to take a 64-61 lead into the final period.
Southwest Minnesota State scored the opening five points of the final quarter to take a 66-64 lead with 8:41 remaining, but Brittany Bongartz kept the Wildcats in contention with five straight points, including a three-point play that gave Wayne State a 69-66 lead.
Wayne State led 74-71 before Southwest tied the game on a 3-pointer with 1:44 to go in regulation. Lowe hit the game-winning layup with :33 left, and Norling blocked two Southwest shots and the Mustangs missed a third shot at the buzzer to give the Wildcats the win.
Norling finished with 18 points to lead Wayne State in scoring followed by Busse with 17. Kylie Hammer added 12 while Bongartz recorded her second double-double in the last three games with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
WSC had one more rebound than SMSU, 40-39, thanks to 10 boards by Bongartz. Norling was credited with a career-best seven assists and had three blocked shots in the win.
The Wildcats return to the friendly confines of Rice Auditorium this weekend, hosting Winona State Friday with the women’s game at 5:30 p.m. and the men’s tilt at 7:30 p.m. They will battle Upper Iowa on Saturday with games at 3:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.
