Wayne, Neb. — For the fifth time in the last 13 meetings and the sixth time in the series, Wayne State and Minnesota Duluth played overtime in men’s college basketball Friday evening in Duluth, Minnesota but the host Bulldogs made all five field goals in the extra session to hold off the Wildcats 92-87 in overtime in a Northern Sun Conference cross division battle. Host UMD is now 15-6 and 11-4 in the NSIC North while WSC drops to 14-7 and 9-6 in the NSIC South Division.
Wayne State played from behind all night long as the Wildcats held the lead for just 1:37 compared to 39:00 for the Bulldogs.
The biggest lead of the game for WSC was 5-3 and the final lead for the ‘Cats came at 17-16 with 11:29 to play in the first half following a Nick Ferrarini 3-pointer.
Minnesota Duluth built a 33-25 first half lead with just over five minutes to play and led at intermission 37-32.
The Wildcats never held a lead in the second half but stayed close to the Bulldogs until tying the score late in regulation to send the game into overtime.
With the score tied at 55-55 with 12:12 remaining, Minnesota Duluth scored nine straight points over the next 2:05 to take the biggest lead of the game at 64-55 with 10:07 to play.
WSC responded with an 8-1 run and closed to within two at 65-63 on a pair of Jordan Janssen free throws with 6:48 left.
UMD pushed the lead back to six at 69-63 with 4:23 to go, but WSC slowly pecked away at the Bulldog lead.
A basket by Janssen with 1:22 to play cut the Bulldog lead to 73-71. UMD made a free throw following a flop technical foul call on Wayne State’s Nate Mohr with 42 seconds left to go ahead 74-71.
A pair of free throws by Janssen moments later cut the UMD lead to one again at 74-73. Joshua Brown of Minnesota Duluth was fouled with 22 seconds remaining and made one of two free throws for a 75-73 UMD lead.
Ferrarini tied the score at 75-75 on a layup with just over 10 seconds to play. Austin Andrews missed a jumper for UMD to send the game into overtime.
Minnesota Duluth never trailed in the extra session, building a seven point lead at 88-81.
WSC used a Janssen basket, Ferrarini 3-pointer and three-point play from Mohr to get within one at 90-89 with 12 seconds left in overtime.
Drew Blair sank a pair of free throw with 8.3 remaining for the Bulldogs giving UMD a 92-89 lead. Wayne State’s Nate Mohr was fouled with three seconds left, but could not connect on a pair of free throws to close the deficit and UMD tipped the ball away on the final missed free throw as time expired giving UMD the overtime win.
Janssen led Wayne State in scoring with his second straight game of more than 30 points, pouring in 31 on 11 of 20 shooting from the field and 9 for 10 at the charity stripe. The Lincoln East graduate became the first Wildcat since Kyle White in 1994 (31 vs. Briar Cliff and 33 vs. SMSU) to post back-to-back 30-point games after Janssen had 32 last Saturday night vs. Minnesota Crookston.
Other Wildcats in double figures were Ferrarini with 19 points and Mohr 13.
Wayne State was 33 of 67 from the field for 49 percent, going 6 for 17 behind the arc and 17 of 22 (77%) at the free throw line.
Drew Blair scored 23 points for Minnesota Duluth followed by Joshua Strong with 15, Joshua Brown 13 and Jack Middleton 11. UMD made 28 of 60 shots for 46.7 percent. The Bulldogs were 11 of 29 from 3-point range and 25 of 36 at the free throw line.
UMD held a slim 34-32 edge in rebounding over WSC with Janssen grabbing seven boards for the ‘Cats.
Wayne State visits St. Cloud State Saturday at 3:30 p.m. to close out their NSIC weekend road trip.
