The Wayne State College men’s basketball team picked up back-to-back wins on the road against the Northern State Wolves on Friday, Jan. 13 and the Mary Marauders on Saturday, Jan. 14.
Redshirt sophomore guard Alec Millender played the hero role Friday against the Wolves, hitting a 12-foot jump shot with 4.3 seconds left to lead the Wildcats to a thrilling 70-69 win.
The Wildcats dominated all the way through the Saturday contest against the Marauders for a 73-53 win. The results from this weekend push the Wildcats overall record to 11-7 with a 4-7 record in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference play. They also mark the first two road wins of the season.
“Coming in, we knew it was gonna be a rough trip on the road, but we had a good week of practice and came in doing our thing,” freshman guard JJ Ferrin said.
The first matchup of this two-game road sit brought the Wildcats to Wachs Arena, where they took on the Northern State Wolves. The -18-degree weather outside translated inside, as both teams started cold, shooting 2-5 from the field. The two sides traded baskets, but with the game tied at 11, the Wildcats started to take control. With 11:52 on the clock, the Wildcats went on a 16-3 run over the next eight minutes and closed the half with a mini 4-0 run to take a 31-18 lead at halftime. The Wildcats were outplaying the Wolves, as WSC shot 38.2% as a team compared to NSU’s 21.9%.
Both teams heated up in the second half, as it was WSC continuing it’s momentum into the second half with two opening-minute triples from junior forward Trey Deveaux to extend the lead to 19. However, the feisty Wolves did not go down easy. They battled all throughout the second half, slowly chipping away at the lead, but for every run the Wolves went on, WSC had an answer. NSU kept fighting, eventually trimming the lead to single digits for good with seven minutes to play. The Wolves eventually got the lead down to a single bucket with 5:26 to play. The Wildcats were able to extend their lead back out to a 68-61 advantage with 2:39 to play.
For the next two and a half minutes, the Wildcats were unable to muster anything offensively, as two free throws from Wolves star Jacksen Moni tied the game at 68 with 1:07 left to go. Moni got yet another trip to the free throw line with 33 seconds left, where he gave the Wolves their first lead of the game after making his first foul shot. After missing the second one, Wildcat’s Head Coach Jeff Kaminsky elected not to use his final timeout off the rebound, and WSC put the ball in the hands of Millender, who rose up from 12 feet out to sink the go-ahead bucket with 4.3 seconds left and give the Wildcats a 70-69 lead.
“No one else was more deserving to hit that shot,” Ferrin said. “Alec works so hard. We all knew he could hit it. He had the confidence to shoot it and he made it.”
After a timeout was called from both sides, Wolves guard Josh Dilling got a great look from three, but his shot rimmed out as the Wildcats survive in the road.
“For that shot at the end, I was on the sidelines thinking it was in,” Ferrin said. “From our angle on the bench it looked like it was butter but we are just happy to pull out the win.”
Millender led the way with 21 points, followed by Deveaux with 13 and sophomore guard David Harmon with 12.
The second game pit the Wildcats against the University of Mary Marauders. This game also saw the Wildcats control it all the way through, but it led to a very different result. WSC got a 19 point performance from Deveaux and a 17 point outing from Millender en route to a dominate 73-53 win. The Wildcats were on a heater in frigid Bismarck, N.D, shooting 52.8% from the field.
The Wildcats are back on the road this weekend to take on the St. Cloud State Huskies on Friday, Jan. 19 and the Bemidji State Beavers on Saturday, Jan. 20.
