The Wayne State men’s basketball team went 1-1 on the road this past weekend facing NSIC conference opponents Minnesota State-Mankato and Concordia-St. Paul. The Wildcats are now 5-3 and 2-1 in conference play.

The Wildcats lost the first game of the weekend against Minnesota State 86-58. The game was close early until MSU took control midway through the first half. WSC was still within four at 26-22 after a dunk by Trevin Joseph with seven minutes left in the half. MSU held a 43-28 lead going into halftime over WSC, after going on a late 10-0 scoring surge to end the first half.

Jordan Cornelius and Tony Bonner led Wayne State in points with nine apiece. WSC shot just 39.7 percent from the field on 25 of 63 shots and was just 1 for 12 from three-point range. The ’Cats also shot 7 of 11 from the charity stripe on the game.

Minnesota State held a 40-31 advantage over WSC. Freshman forward Ben Dentlinger added five rebounds for Wayne State.

“That was as bad as we have ever played that I can remember,” said senior Tyler Nagy. “We need to learn from that game but mostly forget about it and move on.”

Wayne State beat conference opponent Concordia-St. Paul 76-57 in the second game of the weekend, Saturday evening at the Gangelhoff Center in St. Paul Minnesota.

WSC started out the contest strong, taking a 16-15 lead midway through the second half. The Wildcats continued their dominance over CSP by going on a 16-4 run in a span of 4:20 to take a lead 36-22. WSC held a 41-24 lead going into the second half.

The Wildcats kept a double digit lead for the remainder of the second half, leading by as many as 24. Kendall Jacks made 12 of 18 shots from the field, including two 3-point shots and 2-2 from the free-throw line to account for his season-high 28 points. Senior Brian Goodwin contributed 12 points along with senior Matt Thomas with 11. Vance Janssen dished out six of WSC’s 22 assists.

Wayne State recorded a season-high of 11 3-pointers in the night, going 11 of 21 from behind the arc. WSC also shot 47.5 percent from the field, making 29 of 61 shots.

“We played with a lot of energy and moved the ball around extremely well,” said senior JJ Zumbrennen. “We ended the game with 22 assists compared to only six assists in the game before that we lost.”

Wayne State had only six turnovers for the night while forcing 14 on CSP, resulting in a 15-4 advantage on points in the lane.

Wayne State was at home Tuesday evening as the team faced Nebraska Christian College.