Wayne State College’s Men’s Basketball rolled past the St. Cloud State Huskies in an 83-59 victory on the first night of Northern Sun action at home in Rice Auditorium. The victory moved the Wildcats to 10-6 overall and 7-3 in the NSIC, while the Huskies fell to 8-9 overall and 4-6 in conference play.

“Nate (Mohr) just adds such another threat shooting the ball, he’s certainly our best shooter along with Justin Eagins,” Head Coach Jeff Kaminsky said. “With him being back in the lineup after his injury, and getting the sense that he was back where he needed to be health-wise, just gives us another weapon at the start of the game, and really paid off.”

The ‘Cats were lead in scoring by the junior guard from Glenwood, Iowa with a season-high 19 points and five three-pointers, in his first appearance of the new year in the starting lineup; followed by Junior Forward Jordan Janssen who came up with 18 points; making this matchup 33 consecutive games with double-digit points moving him into eighth place on the program’s all-time scoring list with 1,457 points just ahead of Larry Coney (1958-62) with 1,455 points.

Redshirt Freshman Guard Justin Eagins topped off the team scoring list putting up 12 points followed by freshman guard Jay Saunders adding 11 points off the bench.

“From a defensive standpoint vs St. Cloud, it was really a collective effort,” Kaminsky said. “Justin (Eagins) had one of the tougher matchups in guarding Caleb Donaldson, who is a high-level all-conference player. We ended up matching up a number of guys with him just because of their gameplan of playing a smaller lineup. I think with Alec’s (Millender) ball pressure and Jay Saunders; all three of those freshmen add a dynamic to our team on both ends of the floor, all three take a lot of pride defensively, and play with a lot of energy. The big thing offensively is they’re capable of scoring, but at the same time they’re all unselfish and do a bunch of different things well.”

Night two of the matchups included the Wildcats taking on the nationally ranked No. 9 University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs. UMD handed the WSC men only their second home loss of the season with a score of 91-83 in NSIC play. Wayne State fell to 10-7 overall and 7-4 in the NSIC South Division, while the Bulldogs improved to 17-2 overall and 10-2 in the NSIC North following the victory.

The ‘Cats trailed a majority of the first half until a scoring by Jordan Janssen, Eagins, and Alec Millender gave them a one point lead (38-37) at halftime.

The second half saw WSC continue the lead along with two ties as Minnesota Duluth came back in the third quarter to take control of the game.

It was a closely contested game with the Wildcats only trailing 65-63 with 8:52 to go in the matchup, until Minnesota Duluth went on a 13-3 scoring surge of their own in the final minutes building a 78-66 lead that was too much for the Wildcats to come back from.

“Duluth has been ranked as high as No. 5 in the country,” Kaminsky said. “Their starting lineup is just as dangerous and capable in terms of scoring as any lineup in the entire country for any school. They present a lot of challenges in terms of trying to defend them, and our guys battled well. We were down a little early, then came back and looked more in control of the game in the last chunks of the first half and ended up taking the lead at halftime. There is just a smaller margin of error when you’re playing a team like Duluth offensively. Overall we did well, despite making too many mistakes to correct defensively with our help recover.”

Janssen and Eagins lead WSC in scoring, both with 19 points; also Nate Mohr and Millender each chipping in with 14 points.

Freshman Forward Cody McCullough stepped up big time with leading the ‘Cats in total rebounds at nine, four of which, coming within the final five minutes of the game. Following McCullough on the list, is Janssen with seven total rebounds, making him just the fourth player in program history to record 900 career rebounds.

“McCullough is really progressing well; with him and Jordan (Janssen), we have two of top rebounders in the conference, so it’s nice to have guys like them who can play together,” Kaminsky said. “And also with Ben Dentlinger, we have a three man rotation. Zach Lafave gives us a good element in the forward spot, so all four of those guys played really well for us.”

WSC is on the road next for NSIC cross-division play, visiting University of Minnesota Crookston Friday night at 7:30 p.m. and Bemidji State Saturday at 5:30 p.m.

WSC Men’s Basketball against St. Cloud State – January 21, 2022

Photos by Whitney Winter

WSC Men’s Basketball against Minnesota Duluth – January 22, 2022

Photos by Whitney Winter