The Wayne State College Wildcat men’s basketball team split their final two road games of the season, losing to the MSU Moorhead Dragons 72-61 on Friday, Feb. 16 and defeating the Minnesota Crookston Golden Eagles 74-59 on Saturday, Feb. 17.
The results from this past weekend around the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference have now locked the 12-team field for the conference tournament, and WSC is one of those teams. The Wildcats currently sit at 12th in the conference with an overall record of 14-13 and a 7-13 record in NSIC play.
The Wildcats opened up their final road trip with a contest against the eighth ranked MSU Moorhead Dragons. Neither offense got much going to start the first half, yet the Dragons opened up on an 8-0 run over the first 6:09. The Wildcats finally got on the scoreboard just seconds later off a three-pointer courtesy of sophomore guard David Harmon. Much of the first half saw WSC try to fight closer to the Dragons, but MSU Moorhead was having none of the Wildcats comeback efforts. Even though the Dragons were 0-7 from three, they shot 14 free throws in the half, making 13 of them. The Dragons led 33-24 as the teams headed into the locker room.
The Wildcats came out looking to have more success cutting into the Dragons deficit, but early on, their efforts were to no avail. The Dragons were able to answer every bucket WSC scored, ballooning the lead to as many as 14 throughout the first seven minutes. From this point on, the Wildcats were able to keep the lead to no more than nine for the next three minutes, eventually getting it down to five with 9:10 remaining. MSU Moorhead still held strong, not letting the Wildcats cut any farther into the lead they amassed. That is, until the 6:01 mark to play, where a Harmon layup cut the lead to just one. The Dragons quickly answered back by getting their lead back up to five with 5:17 to play. WSC again fought back, getting the lead back down to one at the 4:04 mark.
The Dragon did not let WSC take the lead, as they made eight free throws down the stretch while the Wildcat offense went cold to survive the WSC onslaught 72-61. Free throws were a killer for the Wildcats, and clutch for the Dragons simultaneously. The Dragons attempted a total of 34 free throws, tied for the most they have attempted in a single game all season, making 27 of them to help down the Wildcats. Trey Deveaux led the Wildcat effort with 21 points while Harmon followed closely behind with 17.
The Wildcats next game on Saturday against the Golden Eagles was much more of a back-and-forth affair to start. Both sides held a lead at some point throughout the first half. The Wildcats held an advantage as big as six, but found themselves down by two, 31-29 at halftime after some big buckets from Grant Reid of the Golden Eagles.
The Wildcats started the second half on a 6-0 run and did not look back. The four point lead quickly turned into a seven point lead, where the Golden Eagles furiously tried to make a comeback effort, eventually cutting the Wildcats lead down to three with 11:29 to play in the game. The Golden Eagles fought tooth-and-nail with Wildcats to trail by only four with 8:16 left. After holding off more comeback attempts by the Golden Eagles, starting at the 7:53 mark, WSC blitzed the Golden Eagles with a 10-0 run and didn’t look back. The Wildcats finish with a 15-point win, 74-59.
Deveaux led the scoring effort yet again with 19 as five Wildcats hit double figures. Cody McCullough was next with 18, followed by Harmon and JJ Ferrin with 12 and Alec Millender with 11.
While the Wildcats are guaranteed a spot in the conference tournament, they can finish anywhere from their current standing of 12th all the way up to 8th, depending on the results from around the NSIC. If the Wildcats were to finish 8th after this weekend, a first round NSIC Tournament game will be held at Rice Auditorium.
The final weekend of competition will see the Wildcats finish the season at home against the University of Mary Marauders on Friday, Feb. 23 at 7:30 p.m. and the Northern State Wolves on Saturday, Feb. 24 at 5:30 p.m. Both games will be held in Rice Auditorium on the campus of WSC.
