The Wayne State women came away with a hard-fought win at Southwest Minnesota State on Friday, while the Wildcat men came up short in an exciting finish against the Mustangs.
In women’s action, the Wildcats had four players finish in double figures as they came away with a 71-60 win over Southwest Minnesota State, improving to 18-6 overall and 13-6 in NSIC action.
The hosts got out to a 5-0 lead early, but Wayne State went on a 13-2 run to take a 13-7 lead and never trailed again, leading 18-16 after one period.
The Wildcats led by as many as seven after a 3-pointer by Maggie Lowe. Southwest cut the lead down to one, but Haley Moore drilled a trey and Paige Ballinger followed with a layup to end the half, giving Wayne State a 34-28 edge at intermission.
Wayne State continued to control the game and led by as many as nine in the fourth when the Mustangs made one last run, getting as close as four point. The deficit could have been closer after Wayne State was whistled for a technical foul, but the Mustangs missed the free throws and Moore followed with another 3-pointer to make it 63-57 and Wayne State would go on to collect the win, going 6-for-6 at the foul line to ice the game.
Ballinger led the way with 19 points and had six blocked shots to move up to fourth on the school’s all-time blocks list with 126 career blocks. She is now third in single-season blocks with 62, passing Whitney Epp’s total of 59 in the 2011-12 season.
Anna Martensen and Kacie O’Connor each added 15 points in the win while Moore tossed in 10. Maggie Schulte and O’Connor shared rebounding honors with five apiece. Schulte also led the team with five assists and four steals.
In the men’s game, Wayne State’s rally from a 12-point second-half deficit fell short as they dropped an 85-82 decision to Mustangs, falling to 8-17 overall and 6-13 in the NSIC.
Wayne State got out to an early led before the Mustangs went on a 7-0 run to take a 13-7 lead. Wayne State got as close as 19-18 and were down by three with 5:10 to go before the Mustangs rebuilt their lead to as many as nine points and led 37-30 at the break.
Southwest pushed their lead to double digits and led 67-57 with 8:37 left, but the Wildcats chipped away at the deficit and got it down to two at 80-78 with :51 to go after an Austin Esters layup. After a Southwest miss, Wayne State got a chance to take the lead, but a 3-pointer by Vance Janssen just missed and Southwest would built the lead back up to four.
Wayne State had one final chance after a Janssen layup with 1.3 seconds left made it 84-82, but Southwest got the final free throw to come away with the win.
Kendall Jacks scored a game-high 25 points in the losing effort for the Wildcats, while Janssen added 18 and Esters matched a career-best with 16 points.
Jacks had eight rebounds and Esters had seven to lead the Wildcat defense. Janssen had six assists.
Both Wayne State teams will head to University of Sioux Falls for games Saturday. The women play at 4 p.m., with the men to follow at 6 p.m.
