The Wayne State men’s basketball team went 0-2 this past weekend at home facing North Division NSIC opponents MSU-Moorhead and Northern State Friday and Saturday evenings. WSC is now 6-15 overall and 3-9 in league play.

In the first game of the weekend, WSC faced a tough MSU-Moorhead team losing 71-82. MSU came out to start the game red hot with an early 18-8 lead over Wayne State. MSU went into the half with the edge over WSC 48-39.

“In our games this weekend, we were aware that Northern and Moorhead have been playing well recently, so it would be a challenging weekend,” senior guard Al’Tavius Jackson said. “During our walk-throughs we prepared with intense focus.”

MSU held the lead for the remainder of the contest. Jordan Janssen led the Wildcats with 21 points on 10-11 shooting. Three other Wildcat players reached double figures: Nate Mohr, 12; Nick Ferrarini, 11; Nate Thayer, 10.

WSC held the rebounding advantage over MSU 38-35 paced by junior forward Ben Dentlinger, with a career-high of 13 rebounds. The Wildcats were 9-12 at the line and shot 47.5 percent from the field on 29 of 61 shots.

“We didn’t come out with any wins, but we still gained momentum because we competed very well against both teams,” Jackson said.

In the second game of the weekend, Northern State battled Wayne State, winning 82-72.

WSC went into the half trailing 44-28.

Sophomore forward Henry Penner led Wayne State with a career-high of 17 points off the bench, going 6-10 from the field and 5-7 from 3-point land. Jackson poured in 16 points for WSC.

Janssen contributed his 11th straight double-double of the year for WSC with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

“We’re just trying to get better every day, and we realize that when we play hard we are a pretty good team,” Janssen said. “We just have to put together some games where we play hard for the full 40 minutes and need to continue to practice every day.”

Wayne State shot 39.7 percent from the field and was 6-15 from the 3-point line.

Wayne State will be back in action this weekend on the road against NSIC South Division opponents Minnesota State-Mankato and Concordia-St. Paul.