St. Cloud State’s Ryan Bagley made a layup as time expired in overtime to give the visiting Huskies a wild 100-98 overtime victory over Wayne State College Wednesday evening in the opening round of the NSIC Sanford Health Men’s Basketball Tournament played at Rice Auditorium in Wayne.
It was hot shooting from the Huskies throughout the night that forced Wayne State to play from behind much of the contest.
After WSC opened with a 6-0 lead, St. Cloud State stormed back and built an 18-11 lead at the 12:16 mark.
WSC got within four at 18-14, but the hot-shooting Huskies exploded with a 23-4 run over the next 5:33 and took a commanding 41-18 lead with 5:54 to play in the half thanks to 8 of 13 shooting from behind the arc.
The Wildcats rallied in the final six minutes of the half and reduced the Husky lead to nine at intermission – 47-38 – following a Nate Mohr 3-pointer with four seconds left before halftime.
St. Cloud State still held a double digit lead – 51-40 – three minutes into the second half and maintained a 63-55 lead with just under 12 minutes to play when the Wildcats made a comeback.
Trailing 69-63 with 7:54 remaining, WSC used a pair of Alec Millender baskets followed by a steal and layup from Justin Eagins to tie the game at 69-69. A Ben Dentlinger dunk gave WSC its first lead of the second half at 71-69 at the 5:45 mark.
The Huskies did not go away and led by three, 79-76, with 2:37 left.
SCSU still led 81-80 but WSC got two free throws each from Eagins, Millender and Mohr in the final 29 seconds and had a 86-83 lead after two Mohr free throws with eight seconds to play.
Anthony Roberts drained a 3-pointer from the right wing with just under two seconds to play to force overtime at 86-86.
The Huskies built a five-point lead early in the overtime session at 94-89. WSC was still down 98-95 with 29 seconds to play, but Eagins connected on a 3-pointer with 19 seconds to play knotting the score at 98-98. Bagley drove to the left side of the basket and banked in a layup as time expired giving the visiting Huskies the win.
Junior forward Jordan Janssen matched his career-high with 29 points, making 12-of-16 shots from the field and 5-of-7 at the charity stripe. Eagins followed with 19 points with Mohr scoring 17 on five 3-pointers. Millender (14) and Dentlinger (11) also hit double digits.
Roberts poured in a game-high 34 points to lead St. Cloud State in scoring. Caleb Donaldson added 24 points with Bagley scoring 12 and Matthew Willert 11.
Dentlinger and Janssen each had six rebounds for WSC. Alec Millender was credited with eight assists in the game while Dentlinger had two blocks.
Wayne State ends the year at 14-12.
