The Wayne State College men’s basketball team went one for two on the road this past weekend in NSIC action against St. Cloud State University and the University of Minnesota-Duluth.

The ‘Cats fell short Friday night after rallying from behind with six minutes left to play against St. Cloud State and lost 84-80. Saturday night was a much different outcome as sophomore guard Vance Janssen hit the game-winning layup to win 79-77.

“Going into Friday’s game, [St. Cloud] had the best player in the conference, Gage Davis,” assistant coach Nathan Stover said. “All of a sudden in the second half, he took over and it was a fight all the way to the end.”

WSC had the lead at halftime 38-29 over the Huskies after going on an 11 point run in the first half. Junior forward Jordan Cornelius hit a three-pointer to start the second half, and then the Huskies responded with a 14-2 run of their own.

Just 3:11 into the second half, Davis tied the game with a three-pointer. The Huskies went 10 of 12 from the field to begin the second half and had a 58-51 lead with 10:25 left.

The Wildcats fought back to within one point, but missed three free throws with 1:00 left with a chance to tie. The Huskies nailed 9 of 10 free throws in the last 38 seconds to hang on for the 84-80 victory.

“The stat of this game was free throws made and missed,” Stover said. “They were 32 for 34 and we went 18 for 26. There were some down the stretch that we should’ve made. We lost the game because we missed a couple and they were exceptional at the line.”

The Wildcats opened the game against the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs with the leadat halftime, 41-39.

“We felt like were a little bit flat,” Stover said. “We weren’t as sharp as we normally are.”

UMD took their first lead of the game to open the second half. The remainder of the game turned out to be a close encounter.

Sophomore guard Kendall Jacks nailed a three-pointer with 12:10 left to put the Wildcats on top, 59-53. UMD answered back with eight out of the next ten points and tied the game 61-61 with 9:20 remaining.

With 38 seconds remaining, junior guard Austin Esters was fouled, and made one out of two free throws, giving the Wildcats a 77-75 lead. The Bulldogs drove down the court and tied the game 77-77 on a Jake Wilson basket with four seconds remaining.

UMD called a timeout following the made basket by Wilson. WSC’s Janssen took the inbound and drove down the court for the game winning layup with less than one second remaining, giving the Wildcats the two-point victory.

“We work on this scenario at least one time a week,” Stover said. “It’s called ‘our last second half court,’ and it’s designed where we have a few seconds to go in the game and we have to get the ball past half court and call a timeout.”

The ‘Cats improve to 7-15 overall and 5-11 in NSIC. The Bulldogs fell to 4-18 overall and 3-13 in NSIC play.

“We’re still getting better,” Stover said. “Teams are either going up or down this time of the year. It feels like we have a gradual increase on continuing to get better.”

The Wildcats will be back at home Friday evening at 8 p.m. against Bemidji State and Saturday evening at 6 p.m. against Minnesota Crookston.