Redshirt freshman Justin Eagins scored a career-high 21 points to lead Wayne State in a 68-65 Northern Sun Conference men’s basketball victory over Southwest Minnesota State Thursday evening at Rice Auditorium in Wayne. The host Wildcats improve to 5-3 and 2-0 in the NSIC while the visiting Mustangs drop to 5-2 and 1-1 in the league.
The Wildcats held off a hot shooting Mustang club that was 14 of 28 behind the arc in the contest.
Both teams had double digit scoring runs in the first half.
After WSC started with a 9-2 lead, Southwest Minnesota State went on a 13-0 run over a span of 3:40 to take a 15-9 lead on the Wildcats.
Down 18-13, WSC then scored 10 straight points in a stretch of just 2:23 to regain the lead at 23-18 at the 7:49 mark.
But Southwest Minnesota State closed the half strong and took a 30-29 lead into the locker room.
The visiting Mustangs held the lead for the first part of the second half and led by as many as five at 37-32 with 16:18 remaining.
SMSU’s last lead came at 41-39 at the 12:54 mark. WSC then used another 10 point scoring run over the next 4:23 and took a 49-41 lead on a Jay Saunders jumper with 8:31 to play.
After WSC took their biggest lead at nine, 53-44 with 7:48 to play, the Mustangs made one more charge at the Wildcats and got within two at 53-51 with five minutes to play.
The ‘Cats pushed the lead back to eight at 62-54 following a Jordan Janssen putback with 2:29 remaining, but the Mustangs stormed back and cut the WSC advantage to one at 66-65 following a Grant Kramer 3-pointer with 45 seconds to play.
WSC missed a pair of free throws and SMSU had a chance to take the lead, but a Saunders fast break layup following a Cody McCullough rebound with 21 seconds left gave the ‘Cats a 68-65 lead.
The Mustangs had the final possession and attempted a long 3-pointer by Kenny Byers from the left wing that was short and the Wildcats held on for the 68-65 win.
Eagins paced Wayne State in scoring with his career-high 21 points, going 6 of 10 from the field and 5 for 8 behind the 3-point line, to go with 4 of 6 at the charity stripe. Janssen reached double digits for the 25th straight game with 15 points while Saunders and Alec Millender also hit double figures with 12 and 10 points respectively.
WSC was 23 of 53 shooting for 43.4 percent, making 9 of 23 shots behind the arc, along with 13 for 21 at the free throw line.
Grant Kramer led SMSU with 15 points. Byers contributed 12 points while Dunwa Omot and Sam Schwartz each scored 11.
Southwest Minnesota State made 24 of 56 shots for 42.9 percent and was 14 of 28 (50 percent) from the 3-point line. The Mustangs were just 3 of 5 at the foul line.
WSC won the rebounding battle over SMSU 35-27 thanks to 12 boards by McCullough and 10 from Janssen for his 40th career double-double.
Both teams had 17 turnovers in the game. Eagins had three assists while Saunders notched three steals.
The Wildcats will be in action Saturday afternoon traveling to the University of Sioux Falls for an NSIC South Division contest starting at 3:30 p.m.
